Skin Care Product Safety

A number of people have emailed me information in the past 6 months regarding skin care products and cosmetics -- I have received almost as many emails about this topic as I have about food. And I fully admit that my eyes have been opened wide to a topic about which I was incredibly naive! I didn't realize, until these friends clued me in, just how dangerous certain skin care products can be to our health. Apparently, unlike with food, the FDA does not monitor any of the ingredients that manufacturers put into their skin care/cosmetic products nor does it require manufacturers to test their own products for safety. And as my friend, Marion, pointed out to me, our skin is incredibly sensitive and capable of absorbing whatever we put on it -- hence, the invention of the nicotine patch and birth control patch.

The UCSF Cancer Center apparently finds this issue to be of enough concern that they actually hosted a seminar about it recently. Unfortunately, it happened while I was in the hospital recovering from surgery so I could not attend, but I found out later that the seminar was co-moderated by a company called Environmental Working Group, which runs a website called Skin Deep. Skin Deep pairs ingredients in nearly 25,000 products against 50 definitive toxicity and regulatory databases, making it the largest integrated data resource of its kind and a great resource for determining whether the products that you use for yourself and for your children are safe. You'll find every major manufacturer listed on the site, from Clinique and Lancome to Bert's Bees and Aveda. Ironically, I just checked out an everyday sunscreen that I bought over the weekend. It is made by a company called Kiss My Face, which I thought was reputable, but unfortunately, the product scored horribly (ranked 7 out of 10 for safety and 9 out of 10 for sunscreen effectiveness, with 10 being the worst for both categories! yikes!) and so back to the store it will go!

Last week, my friend, Jan, forwarded to me an email that talks about a new development in sunscreen. Apparently, a number of manufacturers (including well-known and trusted brands like Coppertone and Banana Boat) have begun to include "nanoparticles" into their sunscreen products. Nanoparticles were once assumed to be benign and their inclusion in products such as cosmetics and sunscreens considered safe, but scientific research has now shown that many types of nanoparticles can be toxic to human tissue and cell structures. If you click here, you will be taken to a website where you can find more information, including a report that ranks sunscreen brands along a color-coded scale for safety. However, there is also a quick visual test that you can use to find out if your sunscreen has the potential to contain nanoparticles: If your sunscreen rubs on white, then you are safe; however, if your sunscreen rubs on transparent then it likely contains nanoparticles. Needless to say, when I read Jan's email, I did the quick test and ended up throwing away all of our sunscreen!

All of the information that I have read or that friends have forwarded to me about skin care and cosmetic products in these past 6 months only further supports my own personal theory that I likely did not get cancer from any single cause -- I think that I got cancer partly because of genetics, partly because of diet, and partly because of the toxins which surround me every day (such as in food or skin care products.) In this country, there are soooo many toxins that we cannot easily avoid and many that we don't even know exist, and this is why I feel such a sense of urgency now to better understand what is contained in the products that I buy. I want the products that I put on my body (and on my family's bodies) to be as safe as the ones that I put in our bodies. In the end, the best that I can do -- the only way to live a life of "no regrets" -- is to control/avoid the toxins that I know exist. Living with cancer has made me a much more educated (and probably cynical) consumer than I ever was before. I no longer believe that manufacturers or agencies, such as the FDA, have the same standards that I do. Some do, but not all. So it's up to me to educate myself and figure out which companies are aligned with my values and then adjust my purchases accordingly. If you agree, then stick with me...I'll keep you posted on what I learn...