This bumper sticker has been around at least as long as Oprah. Appropriate, maybe, to include on a list of New Year Resolutions. Actually, I’m OK with the first part, but no longer the second.

Americans spend well over $20 billion annually on personal care products that are intended to clean, protect and beautify our bodies … mostly on the surface. But look below the surface and the truth about what many of these items may be doing to our health – and that of the world around us – is anything but pretty.

In May 2007, the company I work for, PCC Natural Markets, became the first U.S. retailer to endorse the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. For me, the importance of this sunk in only after I learned that personal care product manufacturers are not regulated as to the ingredients they use – and are not required to test products for safety – leaving consumers on their own in making safe product choices.

PCC evaluated each and every personal care product it sells for safety using the “Skin Deep” date base complied by the Environmental Working Group, to make certain shoppers are protected from harmful ingredients. The data base is available to anyone by visiting www.safecosmetics.org. I decided to go through the arsenal of lotions and potions that occupies at least as much shelf space as food in my house. These included products I’d bought for years … that my mother bought for years. What I discovered is that many of the “acts of beauty” routinely undertaken by my family and me were not only senseless … they were dangerous.

The Skin Deep database rates over 25,000 products using a color-coded system: Green (0-2 = low hazard), Yellow (3-6 = moderate hazard) and Red (7-10 = high hazard). Some surprises from my household evaluation? Firmly in the Red zone are several former favorites such as Chapstick Cherry Lip Balm (SPF 4), Right Guard Sport Deodorant, and Pantene Pro-V Color Care Color Revival Shampoo. Health risks linked to one or more ingredients in these products include cancer, developmental/reproductive toxicity, allergies/immunotoxicity, biochemical or cellular level changes … and more.
There’s a lot to learn throughout the Safe Cosmetics site. Practice a deliberate act of kindness by taking some time in the New Year for your own personal care product evaluation. Then you can get back to practicing those random ones.