The Safety of Cosmetic Products. Who Actually Regulates It?
Even I have a substantial collection of bottles, tubes and pots in my bathroom…. And with two daughters at primary school, this is only going to increase in the future! But it will surprise no-one to know that I am also very choosy. As things that I don’t have a good feeling about do not enter the house or go straight in the bin….Even so the safety of cosmetics is a subject that I don’t like passing judgement on. Although I have read very much, many uncertainties remain. In simple terms, even I don’t know exactly how dangerous certain ingredients are…. But what I do know is that, despite many reassuring words from above, there are products with certain substances which I, and my children certainly, would not use. And that says enough!
Cosmetic ingredients in your blood, urine and breast milk
The safety of cosmetics is now (luckily) a “big thing”. Even though for decades we never realised that it would be such a big deal and thought that cosmetic ingredients remained nicely on your skin, we now know better. Research into this has found that there are traces of cosmetic ingredients to be found not only in your blood, urine and breast milk but also in the blood and urine of new born babies. This doesn’t necessarily lead to problems, but it should make us aware and think about it. Because why do we accept ingredients in our cosmetic products that have a dubious reputation? I think of substances which have a hormonal effect or ingredients which are phototoxic or carcinogenic. Why do we use products that are known to cause problems when tested on animals but (in so far as us) humans it is not known? Yes it is true that the concentrations used are only very low but we use them daily and in large quantities. The average use of cosmetic products in America is 12 products per day! And what is the situation with babies skin or damaged skin? And what if we use it for 20 years? No-one can yet give us an answer to these questions….
In my opinion if there are good and safe alternatives for unsafe ingredients, then those should be selected for use. We can, as consumers, even demand this. Simply by leaving products that we don’t completely trust on the shelves…
All products safe and tested
I found this film on the internet. It fits in well with how I think about the safety of cosmetics. I would just like to say that we in the Netherlands are lucky that the supervision of cosmetics is much better regulated here. Yet we are by no means completely there yet!
Regards Jetske
(Dr. Jetske Ultee-Research Physician Cosmetic Dermatology)
You can also read:
‘Research Has Revealed That…’,
Minimal concentrations of active ingredients through ‘Angel Dusting’,
‘Oxybenzone’,
‘Ingredients to Avoid’,
‘Is There a Cure for Bags?‘,
‘Perfume in (Many) Baby Products‘ and
‘Natural Cosmetic Ingredients. Safe or Not?‘.