Adolescent exposures to cosmetic chemicals of concern

 

By Rebecca Sutton, Ph.D., Staff Scientist, September 2008

Laboratory tests reveal adolescent girls across America are contaminated with chemicals commonly used in cosmetics and body care products.  Environmental Working Group (EWG) detected 16 chemicals from 4 chemical families – phthalates, triclosan, parabens, and musks – in blood and urine samples from 20 teen girls aged 14-19. Studies link these chemicals to potential health effects including cancer and hormone disruption.   These tests feature first-ever exposure data for parabens in teens, and indicate that young women are widely exposed to this common class of cosmetic preservatives, with 2 parabens, methylparaben and propylparaben, detected in every single girl tested.

In Alex (Washington DC): 12 hormone-altering cosmetics chemicals. “It’s frightening to learn about the many different kinds of toxic chemicals that can be found in my body. At the same time I would much rather be knowledgeable about my body’s chemical makeup than uninformed; in this case, ignorance is NOT bliss.”

This work represents the first focused look at teen exposures to chemicals of concern in cosmetics, exposures that occur during a period of accelerated development. Adolescence encompasses maturation of the reproductive, immune, blood, and adrenal hormone systems, rapid bone growth associated with the adolescent “growth spurt,” shifts in metabolism, and key changes to brain structure and function. Alterations in an array of sex hormones, present in the body at levels as low as one part per billion (ppb), or even one part per trillion (ppt), guide this transformation to adulthood. Emerging research suggests that teens may be particularly sensitive to exposures to trace levels of hormone-disrupting chemicals like the ones targeted in this study, given the cascade of closely interrelated hormonal signals orchestrating the transformation from childhood to adulthood.

During this window of vulnerability to toxic assault, adolescent girls typically experiment with an increasing number and variety of body care products. Teen study participants used an average of nearly 17 personal care products each day, while the average adult woman uses just 12 products daily. Thus, teens may unknowingly expose themselves to higher levels of cosmetic ingredients linked to potential health effects at a time when their bodies are more susceptible to chemical damage.

Cosmetics and other personal care products are an alarming example of government and industry failures to protect public health. Federal health statutes do not require companies to test products or ingredients for safety before they are sold. As a result, nearly all personal care products contain ingredients that have not been assessed for safety by any accountable agency, and that are not required to meet standards of safety. To protect the health of teens and all Americans, we recommend action:

• The federal government must set comprehensive safety standards for cosmetics and other personal care products.
• Teens should make healthy choices for themselves by reducing the number of products they use, and by using our Shopper’s Guide to Safe Cosmetics to select safer products.
• Companies must reformulate products to protect consumers from exposure to potentially toxic chemicals, untested ingredients, and noxious impurities.

Children Exposed Daily to Personal Care Products With Chemicals Not Found Safe For Kids

WASHINGTON – From baby shampoo to diaper wipes, children are exposed to products every day containing chemicals that have not been assessed for their hazards to children, according to an investigation by Environmental Working Group (EWG) that exposes the lack of federal safety protections for children’s personal care products.

In an online survey of more than 3,300 parents, EWG found that the average child is exposed through body care products to 27 chemicals a day that have not been found safe for children, including some associated with cancer, brain and nervous system damage, allergies and hormone disruption. These chemicals are common ingredients in baby shampoo, lotion, diaper cream, sunscreen, and a number of other children’s body care products.

“Just because a shampoo or sunscreen is labeled ‘children’s’ doesn’t mean it’s been tested and found safe for kids,” said Jane Houlihan, EWG’s vice president for research. “Children are more at risk than adults from many chemical hazards, but we have no special standards to protect them.”

Children are typically more vulnerable to chemicals than adults. A child’s skin is 30 percent thinner than an adult’s, and can absorb greater amounts of chemicals from the skin surface. They breathe in more air (and air pollution) relative to their weight than adults, and the blood-brain barrier that helps block chemicals from penetrating brain tissue is not fully formed until a baby is six months old. Even then, many chemicals cross this barrier and target developing brain tissue, with potential life-long harmful effects.
EWG found:

• 82% of children are exposed every week to one or more ingredients with the potential to harm the brain and nervous system.
• 69% of children are exposed every week to one or more ingredients that may disrupt the hormone system, and 3.6% of children are exposed to ingredients with strong data linking them to cancer, including chemicals classified as known or probable human carcinogens.
• 80% of children’s products marked as gentle and non-irritating contain ingredients linked to allergies and skin or eye irritation according to government and industry sources.

The safety of baby products falls under the purview of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but unlike for drugs and food additives, the FDA has no power to require that cosmetics are tested for safety before they are sold. And due to other loopholes in the law, manufacturers are free to use any claim they wish, such as “safe” and “ultra mild,” without proof, and many do just that.

“In the absence of adequate regulation, the manufacturers of children’s products should take responsibility to inform and protect their customers,” said Michael Passoff, associate director of the As You Sow Foundation, which supported the study. As You Sow represents shareholders in engaging publicly held companies to adopt more progressive social and environmental policies “Something shouldn’t be marketed to kids if it’s not proven safe for them,” said Passoff.

Included in EWG’s analysis is a comprehensive Safety Guide to Children’s Personal Care Products to help concerned parents decide which products are best for their children, and which ones to avoid available at http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com. It provides recommendations on choosing safer products instead of the many that contain ingredients of concern for children.

“The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has long been concerned about childhood exposures to unsafe ingredients in cosmetics and body care products because the scientific evidence indicates that timing of exposure matters,” said Janet Nudelman, coordinator of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. “EWG’s childhood exposures survey helps us better understand the extent to which kids are being exposed to chemicals linked to hormone disruption, nervous system problems, cancer, reproductive risks, and allergies.”

Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) is introducing a bill that increases FDA regulation of personal care products and cosmetics, including baby products. This legislation would enable FDA to ensure that all ingredients contained in personal care products, including cosmetics, are safe for use by children and adults. Chemicals that cause cancer in people or animals would be banned from use in personal care products. Today, the FDA doesn’t require studies or testing to determine a product’s safety before a cosmetic product is put on the shelves of a pharmacy or grocery store.

“The government’s falling down on the job when children are being exposed to untested products and chemicals that are supposed to clean and protect them. Parents deserve a government they can trust to screen these products thoroughly and ensure their safety. You don’t leave our kids’ safety to the marketing gurus and cosmetics executives and hope for the best, ” said Kerry.

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EWG is a nonprofit research organization based in Washington, DC that uses the power of information to protect human health and the environment. EWG’s research on personal care products is available at http://cosmeticsdatabase.com/ As You Sow is a corporate social responsibility organization based in San Francisco that uses shareholder advocacy to promote safer and more transparent corporate practices.

WebMD: Household Chemicals Show Up in Blood

Study by Environmental Group Shows Toxic Chemicals End Up in Blood Samples

May 1, 2009 — Up to 48 toxic chemicals commonly used in everyday consumer products have shown up in blood and urine samples of five prominent women environmental activists, according to a study by the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit organization devoted to protecting human health and the environment.

“Testing was primarily targeted toward products used in everyday consumer products that have escaped regulation under the Toxic Substances Control Act,” Anila Jacob, MD, MPH, a senior scientist with the organization, said at a news briefing.

The findings, according to Jacob and others from Environmental Working Group, offer more proof that the Toxic Substances Control Act is antiquated and needs a major overhaul to protect Americans from the adverse effects of chemicals found in everyday products.

Companies should be required to prove their products are safe before they go on the market, Environmental Working Group scientists say.

While some officials from the chemical industry support modernization of the Toxic Substances Control Act, they contend that the sampling system used in the report provides only a snapshot in time, without enough details on exposure to prove an adverse effect on health.

The Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 gives the Environmental Protection Agency authority to oversee chemical substances and mixtures, but generally excludes food, drugs, cosmetics, and pesticides.

In February, Congress held the first of what is expected to be several hearings on the law’s reform.
Toxic Chemicals Study

The Environmental Working Group study, funded by Rachel’s Network, an organization of women environmentalists, took two years to complete. Researchers sampled the activists’ blood and urine and analyzed them for toxic chemicals, using four independent laboratories.

“In each of these women we found at least one controversial chemical,” says Sonya Lunder, MPH, a senior analyst with the Environmental Working Group and a co-author of the report. To be termed controversial, she says, a chemical must be one whose safety is being debated.

“In everyone we found fire retardants, Teflon chemicals, fragrances, bisphenol A or BPA, and perchlorate,” she tells WebMD.

Flame retardants are found in foam furniture, televisions, and computers. Teflon is used in nonstick coatings and grease-resistant food packaging. BPA is a plastics chemical; perchlorate, a rocket fuel ingredient, can contaminate tap water and food. Fragrances have been associated with hormone disruption in animal studies.

Every woman tested positive for up to 60% of the 75 chemicals evaluated, the report found.

The women live far apart: in Green Bay, Wis.; New Orleans; Corpus Christi, Texas; and Oakland, Calif. But their toxic chemical load is similar, according to the Environmental Working Group scientists.

Each woman had at least one chemical at a high percentile –such as the 81st percentile for bisphenol A, meaning her level of chemicals was higher than all but 19% of Americans who have been tested.

Industry Response

Tiffany Harrington, a spokeswoman for the American Chemistry Council, would not comment on the study itself but did issue a statement that reads in part: “The American Chemistry Council supports science-based biomonitoring programs and the responsible and appropriate communication and use of biomonitoring information in assessing the potential risk posed by exposure to chemicals. However, biomonitoring provides only a snapshot of substances present in the body at a single point in time.”

Biomonitoring is defined by the CDC as the direct measurement of exposure to a toxic substance by examining the substances themselves or their metabolites in human blood or urine samples.

The statement from American Chemistry Council continued: “It does not tell us where a substance came from, when the exposure to the substance occurred, or the duration and frequency of exposure. The presence of a substance detected by biomonitoring is not, on its own, an indicator if there will be any health effects.”

The group does support modernization of the Toxic Substances Control Act, she says.

Jacob notes that health trends in the U.S. suggest that the chemical load plays a role, citing growing rates of autism spectrum disorder, diabetes, and certain cancers.

“These chemicals are showing up in people. They can be potent at very low levels of exposure; we know that from animal studies.”

While the rising number of chronic diseases has many roots, she says, the increased exposure to chemicals is one factor.

 

posted on:  www.ewg.org

How Safe is Your Morning Bathroom Routine?

How safe is your morning bathroom routine?  Most likely you take a shower with a zesty, invigorating shower gel; you shampoo and condition your hair; you wash and maybe scrub your face with a foaming fresh-smelling cleanser; if you are a man, you also shave.  You splash your skin with a toner or an astringent, top it with a moisturizer with (hopefully) some sunscreen in it, followed by makeup (again, optional), rub some antiperspirant under your arms, and add a spritz of a fragrance to seal the deal.  Within fifteen minutes, you have exposed yourself to a whopping amount of chemicals — and you haven’t even left home yet!

After a quick count of ingredients contained in a typical cleanser, toner, moisturizer, eye cream, facial scrub, body wash, body lotion, and sunscreen, I came up with more than two hundred different chemicals that we diligently apply to our body daily.  This is not counting hundreds  of synthetic fragrance ingredients in your favorite eau de toilette!  As you leave the house, you may inhale car emissions, pesticides, radon, volatile organic compounds  - we are truly bombarded with chemicals in our food, water and air!

With such a dramatic rise in illnesses such as cancer, asthma, allergies, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, autism and ADHD we have to wonder if chemical exposure is contributing to this widespread decline in our overall health.  We have no control over environmental exposure, but we can choose to eat organic or chemical free food and greatly reduce the chemicals we use at home with natural cleaning products and natural personal care products.

So, how do we know which products are safe to use?  You must become an ingredient detective.  Even the most “natural” sounding products on health store shelves often contain some harmful ingredients.  These ingredients are often preservatives which are not in the product for your benefit, but so the product can sit for months or even years on store shelves.  We have compiled a list of the most common dangerous chemicals to avoid. The Environmental Working Group (www.ewg.org) also has extensive data on this topic and you can look at the MSDS (or material safety data sheets) if you want to learn more about individual ingredients.

Check your products for the following dangerous ingredients which have the potential to cause adverse effects to your health:

Acetone - effects respiratory and nervous system

Sodium Lauryl/Laureth Sulfate – one of the most common and hazardous chemicals used in personal care products.  Can cause tissue damage that could result in liver, brain, heart, lung damage if used over the long term, eye damage, severe skin irritation, hair loss, eczema, is rapidly taken up and stored within the body.

Nitrosamines – carcinogenic and skin irritant.

BHA or BHT- skin and eye irritant, xeno-estrogen, known to be carcinogen and reproductive disruptor in animals.

DEA – skin and eye irritant that accumulates in organs such as the brain.  Suspected carcinogen.

Dioxane – suspected carcinogen, chemical byproduct.

Isopropyl alcohol – extremely damaging to the eyes, skin irritant.

Propylene Glycol – eye and skin irritant, causes cancer in animal, effects the liver and kidneys.

Parabens – Methyl, propyl, etc. have been found in a large percentage of breast cancer tumors.

It is hard to avoid these toxic chemicals in most commercial personal care products.  We think the easiest solution is to use only chemical – free, natural products to not only preserve but to enhance your health!  We have started a new all natural, hand crafted line of products called Herbal Revolution.  To learn more about these products, call Down To Earth Wellness at (719) 313-7801.

An Herbal Revolution is Coming…

What is the big deal with using natural personal care products?  We know that the less refined a food, the better it generally is for you.  An apple is healthier than apple juice or an apple fritter.  The more processed a food, the more preservatives and additives there are.  Chemicals are used to preserve a food and extend it’s shelf life.  Natural skin care products can be as fresh and healthful as your food, nourishing your body from the outside.  The fresher a product and the fewer chemicals or additives it has, the more effective and healthy it can be.  Armed with this assumption and taking cues from the local food revolution, we have started a new, all natural, handcrafted skin care line.  One that uses fresh ingredients, natural herbs, healing oils and no chemical preservatives.

Because we avoid using harmful chemicals in our products, we need to re-think our skin care rituals and routines.  Some of our products should be refrigerated to preserve their healing properties.  This may sound like an interruption in your routine, but we have some recommendations to make this transition easy.  It is well worth a little effort for the peace of mind that comes with using all natural, chemical free products!

Why should you use Herbal Revolution natural skin care?

• Natural skin care is healthier for your body!  It has been shown that 60-80% of the products we apply to the skin is absorbed directly into the bloodstream.  In many cases, it is more dangerous to apply a skin care product to your skin than it would be to eat the product!  You can avoid the chemicals and preservatives present in most personal care products by using a chemical free skin care product!
• The average consumer (including teens) uses 15 to 25 cosmetic and personal-care products a day. These products will contain about 200 chemicals that have been added to preserve, dye and emulsify the products. Some are the same chemicals used in industrial manufacturing to soften plastics, clean equipment and stabilize pesticides.
• It works!  When a company uses the highest quality natural ingredients instead of cheap fillers, your skin can look and feel better!
• It’s affordable!   Because we make our products in small batches and don’t spend a lot on advertising or packaging, we can afford to use the highest quality ingredients and still keep our prices very reasonable.

If you are interested in purchasing or sampling Herbal Revolution handcrafted natural products, please contact us at (719) 313-7801.  We will have a booth at the Herb Fest on Saturday, May 2 at 3685 Jeannine Drive, Colorado Springs, 80917.  Our products will also be available at Desert Sage Life Essentials in early May at the corner of 25th and Colorado in Old Colorado City.

FREE Postural Assessments! FREE Chair Massage Too!

Down to Earth Wellness will be offering FREE Postural Assessments every Thursday during April starting this Thursday, April 9 from 1pm to 5pm.  This is a $25 value and we will only be doing this for a limited time so please come down and visit us!  

Postural Assessments are helpful for you to see what is going on in your body and if corrective exercises can help you.  During this in-depth assessment we will discuss your physical history and your current symptoms.  We will then measure and chart your posture.  The results we obtain will show if you have deviations in your body’s structure which can lead to compensations or pain.  

At the end of the assessment, we will show you the chart of your posture and discuss if  a postural corrective program might help you.  If you are interested, we will schedule an appointment to learn your customized exercise program.  You’ll also receive a discount on your exercise session if scheduled at this time!  These sessions are very helpful for people who have pain, old injuries, work stress or poor posture.  The exercises are gentle and relaxing and are a great tool to help improve your health at home.

We will also have free chair massages available Thursdays during April from 1pm to 5pm.  Improve your health and relax at the same time!

To learn more visit our website:  www.downtoearthwellness.com

We will be conducting the assessments at Desert Sage Life Essentials, which is located at:

2501 West Colorado Avenue
Colorado Springs, CO 80904
(719) 632-2516

Please call ahead and with questions or to schedule a specific time.  Otherwise the free sessions will be first come, first serve.

Choices…

 

How are you doing with your new years resolutions?  We are almost half-way through the third month of 2009 and many of the idealistic commitments many of us made to ourselves have fallen by the wayside.  Most us us still want to be more fit, eat healithier, lose weight, spend more time with family, get our budget in control and take better care of ourselves, so why aren’t we living our resolutions?  With stress from work and home, constant talk of economic crisis and financial worries, who has the time or energy to spend on self-improvement?  It can seem so hard to make real, lasting changes in our lives.  Most people give up long before reaching their goals.

 

When we all want so badly to change our lives for the better, why is it so easy to become discouraged and give up on these dreams?  I think part of our problem is a failure to be realistic – both with our present situation and when setting our goals.  Who wouldn’t want to lose 20lbs in a week or become a triathlete in a month, but really, is that going to happen?  Especially if the only exercise you’ve done lately is walking from the fridge to the couch!  We also tend to think of these resolutions as short term plans… a diet or work-out routine to get us into shape so we can go back to living our old lives with a great new body, or some massages and chiropractic treatments to fix up those tight muscles so we can continue to work 10-12 hour days.  The problem with quick fixes are they don’t last.  Our lifestyles have created our present situation and only a change to our lifestyle can really change the outcome. 

 

The last two biggest reasons why I think we can’t stick with our goals has to do with habits and choices.  Whatever routine we are used to is what we tend to revert back to.  I heard recently that it takes 21 days to change your habits.  Maybe this is why the first 2-3 weeks of a new workout routine seem the hardest.  Once you’ve done something for 3 weeks it has become a natural part of your routine.  It is not so hard to get up early to workout or to snack on fruits and veggies once it is a normal part of your day.  There will always be temptation to spend hours in the office instead of getting home for a family dinner, but once you decide to change your life it seems there are more chances for failure.  More demands on your time, stress, exhaustion, hunger all trip you up and try and lure you back into your old ways beause it seems easier.  This is where choice is everything.  If you blow your diet on a doughnut this morning, your day ISN’T ruined!  Your diet ISN’T ruined!  Each time you choose what to eat you have a new opportunity to make a better choice.  I am notorious for choosing to eat ice cream instead of fruit or yogurt.  But, if I stop and think each time I have a craving, I may only choose ice cream 10% of the time.  This means that if you eat a few bites of a doughnut one morning, the rest of the day is not shot!  Don’t think “well, I already screwed up so I might as well eat whatever i want”.  If you skip a workout, tomorrow is a new day and a new chance to do better.  If most days, you choose to do better than you did yesterday, you will end up improving your life by small degrees everyday!  Making lifestyle changes should be seen as a marathon, not a sprint.  When we make a mad dash to the finish line, we are quick to revert back to our old behaviors.  When we take our time incorporating changes into our life and learn to forgive ourselves for our imperfections and our ups and downs, we are likely to make the finish line and be able to keep going.

 

The quick tips to remember when changeing our lives:

 

1. Be Realistic  -  with your goals and your present situation.
2. Add/ Omit  -  Pick one or a few things each week to add and to omit from your life.  Example- add 2 servings of fruits and veggies per day and 10 minutes of exercise.  Omit fast food and 1 hour in front of the tv.  Over time you will be amazed at how much you have changed and how eay it was.  Remember to add the healthy things first, unhealthy things will gradually fall out of your life as you incorporate more beneficial items.  
3. Be patient  -  Set a long term plan – Don’t try and change overnight.  Remember it takes 21 days to change your habits.  If you change slowly, you may not reach your goals as quickly, but you are more likely to stick with the changes you have made.
4. Honor Your Choices  -  each day, each moment is an opportunity for a better choice!  Some days you make great choices for your health and for your life, and other days, you are glad to get through the day.  Remember if you improve only 1% each day, in 100 days you have had 100% improvement!  It’s the babysteps that will get you where you want to be!

 

The choice is yours!