Health, Taken Seriously

Deirdre Imus has written three books in her bestselling Green This! Series.  The first volume is Greening Your Cleaning, an excellent resource on how to clean your home and clothes with fewer chemicals.  The second volume is Growing Up Green, a book that covers plastic baby bottles, vaccines, etc.  Probably my favorite in the series is her third book, The Essential Green You! In this book, she discusses how to detox your diet, body, and life.

First, Deirdre tackles food, explaining the importance of organic food, eating less animal products, and eating more fresh produce.  While this information isn’t new or hard to find, in this book it is concise and easy to read.  Then she moves onto personal-care products, listing ingredients to avoid and giving examples of products that are high in dangerous chemicals.  This is the best book I’ve found on the subject.  I appreciate her exhaustive lists of safer products out there.  Finally, she moves onto clothing and medication.  Both topics are interesting, but not covered in much depth.

Here are the top 15 ingredients she suggests avoiding in personal-care products:

1. Oils and fats extracted from animals, which can be contaminated with pesticides and chemicals, and are used as conditioning agents in sunscreen, shaving gel, and hair spray.
2. Butylated Hydroxytoluene (BHT), an antioxidant added to products to prevent other ingredients from changing color as they age.  It’s found in products like lipsticks, moisturizers, foundations, fragrance, bar soap, shaving products, deoderants, body wash, facial cleansers shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, etc, etc.
3. Coal-tar Colors (often show up as FD&C or D&C colors), which are derived from petroleum and are used to control itching, soften scaly skin, and dye hair.
4. Diazolidnyl Urea, an antimicrobial preservative which can release formaldehyde (a carcinogen) and other impurities.  It’s found in moisturizers, styling products, shampoos and conditioners, anti-aging treatments, facial cleansers, sunscreens, mascara, deodorant, lipsticks, shaving products, liquid hand soap, fragrance, etc.
5. Diethanolamine (DEA), which is used to make products foam (often called cocamide DEA or lauramide DEA).  It’s found in shampoos, body wash, facial cleansers, liquid hand soap, bar soap, body scrubs, deodorant, moisturizer, and hair spray.
6. Formaldehyde, used as a disinfectant and preservative, but is a known carcinogen.  It is also a component of many other chemicals, like quaternium-15.  While banned or restricted by the EU, Japan, and Canada, it can still be found in nail products, hair dyes, hair gels, deodorants, shampoos, soaps and shaving creams in the U.S.
7. Fragrance, which includes hundreds of chemicals and potentially toxic ingredients that companies don’t have to list on the label since they are “trade secrets.”  By some estimates, 95% of chemicals in fragrance formulas are derived from petroleum.  Many fragrances also contain diethyl and dibutyl phthalates, known to disrupt hormones, to make the fragrance last longer.
8. Nanoparticles, where chemicals are reduced to sizes aout one hundred thousand times small than the width of a human hair.  Found in sunscreens, deodorant, soap, toothpaste, anti-wrinkle cream, moisturizer, foundation, face powder, lipstick, blude, nail polish, perfume, and after-shave lotion.
9. Parabens, which are used as preservatives.  Are known estrogen-mimickers and can potentially raise your risk for certain types of cancer.  Found in moisturizers, shampoos, conditioners, hair gels, foundations, facial masks, skin creams, deodorants, and baby lotions.
10. Petroleum and its byproducts.  Banned in the EU, but still used here as good old Vaseline.  Also found in creams, lotions, styling gels, concealers, mascaras, eye makeup, and lip products.
11. Phthalates (dibutyl phthalate, or DBP, and diethyl phthalate), which are used as solvents and plasticizers in personal-care products like nail polish.  May also be in personal-care products with fragrance, although not listed as an ingredient.
12. Placenta.  Some anti-wrinkle creams and hair relaxers can contain extracts from cow and human placentas.
13. Propylene Glycol, which is used as a conditioning agent that keeps products from melting in high heat or freezing in the cold.  Also helps other ingredients penetrate skin more readily.  Found in shampoos, conditioners, bar soaps, body washes, face cleansers, liquid hand soap, hair dyes, shaving products, moisturizers, toothpastes, sunscreens, perfumes, deodorants, nail polish, lip products, and eye makeup.
14. Sodium Lauryl Sulface (SLS), which makes other ingredients penetrate your skin more deeply.  Also beware of sodium laureth sulfate.  Found in shampoos, conditioners, var soaps, body washes, facial cleansers, liquid hand soaps, hair dyes, mascara, shaving products, moisturizers, toothpastes, sunscreens, perfumes, etc.
15. Talc, which is irritating to our respiratory system.  Found in blush, eye shadow, face powder, baby powder, perfume, and soap.