Have you ever wondered what "NATURAL" actually meant when you read it on
the bottle of shampoo or skin care product you just bought? Or did you assume because
the word natural was used that it must be good for you and safe? You get the
product home and then you find you can't even read the long chemical names
on the label let alone pronounce them! Why on earth do they say it is
"NATURAL"? How can this be if the chemical names are so long I can't even
begin to pronounce them?
Would you be shocked to find what
manufacturers can claim is "natural" is actually so far removed from natural
it isn't funny.
Would you like to know more about what you are putting on your skin
rather than the hype most products are described with. Well - you will have to
do a little undercover work and become a "Toxic Chemical Ingredient Sleuth".
This is relatively easy to do now we have the Internet. Virtually every
synthetic chemical produced has a MSDS Material Safety Data Sheet published
with the facts about the chemical and the potential dangers to human health.
So if you think you are using safe non-toxic and approved chemicals in your skin
care products then perhaps you should think again. The MSDS will not only
list a summary of the chemical facts but will also summarize the little
known things like hazard identification, first aid measures, precautions
when handling the raw material and exposure limits and what medical action
should be taken if the chemical is accidentally spilt on the skin. You'll
be surprised to learn many of these co-called safe "natural" chemicals have
skull and crossbones warning signs on the bulk drums of chemical to warn the
handlers of the dangers.
Why is this if they are safe and natural?
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Hazard
Communication Standard (HCS) requires an MSDS be prepared for chemicals that
are hazardous according to the criteria described in the HCS. In fact
hazardous toxic chemicals all have to be indexed and a safety data sheet published
for them. Now if you think that that the skin care cream or moisturizer you just smoothed onto your
face is safe and "natural" then start by keying some of the chemical names into the Google
search engine and see what safety data sheets come up. You just may be
shocked at what you read. An excellent website to do research on some of
these ingredients is:
www.hazard.com/msds Why don't you take a note of this website and do
some research on the cosmetics and skin care products you use. (You could
also visit the
page we have on this site for you which lists hundreds of
the more common chemicals found in every day skin "care" and cosmetics.
You are given three search options when you get onto the site
hazard.com site
- Search by the manufacturer, which you may not know
- Search the website database by keying in the chemical ingredient
- There is another database for chemical toxicity data not found in the
MSDS section which you can search through too.
For example, if we use the database search (2nd option) to look for
information on phenoxyethanol, which is used as a preservative in many
so-called “natural” skin care products we see five different MSDSs on file.
A sample of information found on this ingredient included:
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Hazards Identification
EMERGENCY OVERVIEW WARNING!
- Harmful if swallowed.
- Causes skin irritation.
- May cause central nervous system depression.
- May cause kidney damage.
- May cause respiratory and digestive tract irritation.
- Target Organs: Kidneys, central nervous system.
POTENTIAL HEALTH EFFECTS
Skin Contact:
- Severe irritation or burns.
Eye Contact:
- Severe irritation or burns.
Ingestion:
- May cause gastrointestinal irritation with nausea, vomiting
and diarrhoea.
- May cause central nervous system depression,
- May cause headache, dizziness, drowsiness, and nausea.
- Advanced stages may cause collapse, unconsciousness
- May cause coma and possible
death due to respiratory failure.
- May cause kidney failure.
- May be harmful
if swallowed.
- Lesions may appear in the brain, lungs, liver, meninges and
heart.
What do think about putting this chemical on YOUR skin?
ANIMAL TESTING DATA
Lethal Dose 50 (LD50) indicates the quantity of the chemical necessary to
kill 50% of the animal test subjects and is measured in units per kilogram
or PPM (Parts Per Million)
of the animal’s body weight.
- Oral, mouse: LD50 = 933 mg/kg;
- Oral, rat: LD50 = 1260 mg/kg;
- Skin, rabbit: LD50 = 5 mL/kg;
- Skin, rat: LD50 = 14422 mg/kg.
By arming yourself with independent information about the many toxic
ingredients found in today’s skin and personal care products, you can make
an informed decision to protect the health of you and your family.
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Health -Report Comment:
Did you hear of the notorious
Agent Orange chemicals
that were sprayed on the Vietnam jungles in the late sixties and seventies? They
have contributed to the deaths of tens of thousands of people including
thousands of Vietnam Veterans with vastly increased rates of cancer (up to 5000%
increase) and contributed to or caused deformities in thousands of babies. The
knock on effects may go on for generations yet to come!
I used several of the Agent Orange chemicals in my
agricultural spraying business in NZ for six years. One of them which is the now
proven very toxic 245-T had an LD50 rating which was higher than the above
mentioned chemical - meaning it was safer by the chemical industries own measure
of toxicity - yet it has been pulled from the market because of the known toxic
effects. I ask you what on earth is anyone putting synthetic chemicals on their
skin that
kill the test animals at relatively low levels of exposure?
The information to
allow us to make proper informed decisions about "safe" chemical absorption into
our bodies should be on the container or a fact sheet should accompany the
product warning people of the long term effects that may occur.
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Geoff Goldie
www.health-report.co.uk
Informed people make informed choices.
