Choosing Safer hygiene products

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Choosing Safer hygiene products

Posted : 4/29/2013 7:33:01 AM

Idea I am sharing this in part because, just as we have to read labels on our pet foods, we should learn to read labels on our home hygiene things as well.

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Our daily newspaper carries a syndicated column by Dr. Keith Roach on health issues. This column has been around for years, Dr. Donohue used to be the author. He recently (in the past year) retired, but he took his time finding his replacement author, and introducing Dr. Roach to his reading public.

Today's column responds to a reader query on picking safe products for skin, hair, makeup and so forth. You can read the column here:
[url]http://herald-review.com/news/opinion/editorial/columnists/dear-dr-roach-rate-the-safety-of-everyday-products/article_97cc5baa-aea3-11e2-9421-0019bb2963f4.html[/url]

Here is the link to the website mentioned in the article. Products are rated on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the 'safest,' and 5 being the most problematic.
[url]http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/[/url]

It takes a few minutes to learn how to navigate through the site, but I found it very interesting reading.
The site researches and reviews a product ingredients for:
- overall hazard
- cancer
- development and reproductive toxicity
- allergies and immunotoxicity
- use restrictions

It makes for interesting reading.

tacran

Posted : 4/29/2013 11:42:14 AM

Sandie, I came across the Skin Deep website a few years ago (I forget where --- probably in an article in some women's magazine). I spent some time looking up a number of my favorite prodcuts, and it was pretty discouraging to find out how many of them were rated somewhat poorly due to their ingredients.

I didn't switch to all new products since some of them (especially skin care items) perform well for me in many ways (i.e, not causing any allergic reactions, which my senstive skin is prone to have). However, I did look into some new products for things where I felt I could be more flexible, and I still occasionally use the site to look up a new product I've heard about.

Like the person asking the question in the article said, a lot of the non-toxic, safe products are hard to find, and those that you can find are very expensive. It's the same dilemma we have with the food we buy: foods that are officially certified organic cost FAR more than the regular stuff you find in the grocery stores. It's tough to find that balance between what's best for our health and what works with our budgets!

janobonano

Posted : 4/29/2013 8:27:31 PM

I've been gradually switching to natural products over the last couple of years. Now I use products mostly from EffOff Bodycare, The Honest Company*, and Arbonne.

* If anyone wants to sign up for The Honest Company, please let me know and I'll send you a referral. If you sign up I get a $20 credit. Smile It's a bit different because it's a subscription kind of thing. You pick five items for $35 and they ship it to you every 4-8 weeks (you decide how often you want it.) They have a ton of different products to choose from (cleaning, body care, diapers, etc.) and you choose what you want every time. I've been happy with everything except the auto dishwasher detergent.