High toxicity levels...in our everyday products!

I am having a hard time swallowing this. There are a few reasons. One is that it just generally concerns me that there are cancer causing toxins in what seems like everything...baby lotion, sunscreen, hand lotions, body creams, lipsticks (ladies....we are EATING LEAD). The companies range from well known department store brands, to unknown brands, to ones that tout themselves as NATURAL.

If you go to the following website, you can type in your brand, or category, or company, and search for the results. Beware, this is only for what is known, for what has been reported. You might need to do more research to find out if your brands contain toxins.

http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/

Another reason it is hard for me to swallow this is that we are directly applying these toxins (via our products) directly onto ourselves to be absorbed directly INTO our skin. And unless you do some research, you have no idea what you are doing.

A friend of mine introduced me to this website. I checked out a few of the companies used in my household. I buy from Melaleuca, Inc, http://www.melaleuca.com/. They make great products and say that they are non-toxic and high quality, good for the environment, etc. I only found 2 products (neither of which I use) and they had extremely low levels (0-2 based on a 0-10 scale). I highly recommend this company and it's products -- though it does surprise me about those two products. More on them in another post.

What I found alarming is the lists upon lists upon lists of items (over 2500!) with Peg-100 Stearate. This is alarming because some of these items tout themselves as using only natural products! (The Body Shop, Kiss My Face, Neutrogena, Kiehl's) AND, one that scored 9 on the 0-10 scale I grew up using! (St. Yves Apricot Scrub) Yikes! Even worse than that is the products that we use on or around our mouths that are highly toxic...Rembrandt 3-in-1 whitening and mouthwash toothpaste, Orajel Baby Tooth & Gum cleanser, Mixed Berry flavor, even an Arm & Hammer toothpaste! Arm & Hammer!

So think about how Cancer is on the rise. Year after year, diagnosis are on the rise. This now doesn't surprise me given what I have just been reading! And that we start cleaning and moisturizing our babies with all of this from infancy! Johnson & Johnson, Huggies, Baby Magic all contain high levels of toxins. Scary! Thank god I use my Melaleuca Koala Pals products and never got sucked into that whole "Johnson & Johnson are the best" hype.

I realize I am ranting and it may seem pointless, but I really want people to become aware of this and realize that they can actually be proactive in NOT using these harmful products. Avoid using products that contain harmful ingredients and that may be contaminated with 1,4-dioxane, including sodium myreth sulfate, PEG compounds and chemicals that include the clauses "xynol", "ceteareth" and "oleth". Similarly, avoid products that contain formaldehye-releasing preservatives including quaternium-15, DMDM hydantoin, imidazolidinyl urea and diazolidinyl urea.

Products without these additional harmful toxins may be hard to find. Similar to my experience trying to buy products that do not use high fructose corn syrup (which is a toxin as well). They (products without high fructose corn syrup) are hard to find, because it seems it is in everything. Individually it may seem to the FDA that it is such a negligent amount, it isn't harmful, but if it's in EVERYTHING you are eating, then the levels are way higher than anyone is thinking about because it's all compounded. And, same thing with the toxins in the cosmetics and bath products, shampoos, and lotions...it may be low levels individually (though some are high) but ALL together it's insanity!

We all need to wake up to what is in our household products. Don't even get me started on how toxic BLEACH is. That is a whole other posting.