I’ve been so in love with all my healthy products ~ my earthy shampoos, moisturizers, cleansers, lotions ~ and though they’ve got some good stuff, they also have some carcinogens.

An independent study just came out, and I’ve been reading the press releases on this all weekend.  Not fun, but a lot of supposedly credible products still aren’t perfect, containing 1,4 Dioxane, a proven carcinogen which is not purposely added to your favorite bath routine but instead is a byproduct of the petrochemical that causes it to get all lathery.

By the way, this includes children’s bubble baths and products too, including from the leading names in baby care products.

This proves that I have yet to find the “perfect” and proven answers in ”green”.  Instead, it’s another shade of gray (or green, as you may).

And this all proves that “natural” means zip in some cases, “organic” can be adulterated also (as I’ve talked up before), and all these labels (”green”, “sustainable”, “eco” are NEVER a substitute for a bit of homework, some healthy skepticism and a forgiving attitude for companies striving to better their products legitimately.

My Kiss My Face peach facial moisturizer, for instance, is better than the old Oil of Olay that I used to have, but even this relatively healthy moisturizer has methylparaben and propylparaben, which are not so great.

C’est la vie.  Educate yourself and make the best decision for you with the info at hand.

A good rule to live by:  if you can’t easily pronounce it, don’t stick it all over your body.  That said, realize we all have to figure out what we can and go with that for now. 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 at 11:06 am and is filed under ...baby, ...fashionably green, ...label reading, ...organic goods, fuel, greenwashing, health, terminology, veg*n. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.