Personal Care Products




Tell us what products you looked up, what you found about the health risks, and how you responded to this new knowledge. If they don't have your first product choose another and keep choosing until you find one for which they have information.
The two products that I looked up were the ones that I use everyday.  The first is a Cetaphil body lotion, and the second is a L'Oreal conditioner.  What I found out about the body lotion was that there were a lot of "use restrictions" based on a number of ingredients such as Benzyl Alcohol, Sodium Hydroxide, Dimethicone, Glycerine, and many more.  This is concerning because the concern is use restrictions, yet I use this product every single day.  A lot of the ingredients are also in many of the other products that I use so that is also a red flag.  Another concern listed was organ system toxicity which was listed as a concern in at least 4 of the main ingredients.  Tocopherylacetate has cancer listed as a concern and that is one of the main ingredients.  I think this is scary, but what may be even more scary is the ingredients that they don't know about the concerns yet.  The conditioner had even worse ratings than the lotion since the overall hazard, allergies/immunotixicity, and use restrictions were all rated between moderate and high.  The conditioner had similar ingredients as the lotion, but also a lot more and more that had worse ratings.  Many of the concerns were the same with use restrictions, ecotoxicology, organ system toxicity, and endocrine disruption being the most frequent concerns.  I am surprised by this information and it is concerning because I use this product in addition to many others on a daily basis so to add up all the concerns that each product has is pretty overwhelming.  
In reviewing your personal care products:
  • Were you surprised to find out the toxicity rating of your personal care products?  I was surprised to find out about the toxicity ratings of my products, but I also feel like I shouldn't be because there are so many different ingredients that make up these products and for almost all of them I can't even pronounce the names of the ingredients.  
  • Did you decide to change any of your consumer behaviors based on your findings?  I would like to change some of my products, however there is convenience around the products that I pick.  For instance, I can get the lotion in a big bottle from Costco for a good price and the conditioner is one that is sold at the store near me and works with color treated hair.  I would like to make a change to a lot of my products, however I have noticed that they can sometimes be more expensive.  I just have to remind myself that for my health it is important to make these changes.  
  • Should everyone know about this risks and why don’t they?  I do feel people should know about these risks especially because vulnerable populations such as babies and kids use these products as well.  I think people are oblivious to the harm that could be caused by the products that they use everyday.  People aren't aware because maybe they don't want to know about the risks but also this information isnt clear to users, which may be as a sales technique.  

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