Cinco Vidas

As a conscientious parent, you have probably bathed your baby girl in safe, natural products, wrapped her up in organic cotton blankets and fed her organic fruits and vegetables. But what about when she turns 9, 10, 11 and starts playing with makeup? Where are the natural products then?

Though adults can now find, with some effort, safe personal-care products that contain few toxic ingredients, the tween scene continues to be dominated by brands full of propylene glycol (a hormone disruptor); sodium laureth sulfates (harsh on skin); and DMDM hydantoin, a skin, eye, and lung irritant. Add to that the sparkly packaging dancing with idols like Hannah Montana and Hello Kitty and your own plain-colored organic products will never compete, no matter how much you plead.

Fortunately, things are changing. We’re thrilled to hear of some new things happening for the well being of girls who are not yet full-blown teeneagers, but are starting to experiment with being young women—the “tween” set. “Good For You Girls” has hit the shelves, a brand of skincare for teens and tweens that combines natural and organic ingredients and avoids toxic chemicals like parabens, petrochemicals, dyes and irritants, and synthetic fragrances. Finally, young girls have a choice in the products they buy!

Another one—Sparklehearts—makeup, bath, and beauty products that steer clear of chemicals, avoid animal testing, and stay away from artificial colorants. Better yet, these companies know their audience—you’ll find no plain-Jane packaging with little color and pizzazz. Colorful pink and yellow labels that appeal to young girls help make the sale.

Young girls are more at risk from all the toxins we find in most mainstream products, as their bodies aren’t as able to detoxify. We mentioned in an earlier post how the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found 16 chemicals in the blood and urine samples of 20 teen girls—including phthalates, triclosan, and parabens. Young girls are still growing, and since they’re going through puberty, they’re just starting to develop reproductive systems. Hormone-altering chemicals present in the blood stream could be particularly harmful. Tween and teen girls also use more products than adults as they go through a period of experimentation, exposing themselves to over 100 different cosmetic ingredients.

Many girls in the tween years know little about the dangers present in the ingredients in personal-care products, but some are starting to change that, as well. An organization called “Teens Turning Green” (TTG) is a student-led movement educating other teens about eliminating toxic exposure. Started in 2002 as “Teens for Safe Cosmetics,” the group has grown to encourage teens to look for greener alternatives, with grassroots efforts that raise awareness. They’re also working with natural beauty companies to create new TTG products.

We invite you to support these companies and organizations by introducing your teen or tween girl to the new options available in safe products. With the power of our purchasing dollars and our voices, we are changing the marketplace, and can help continue and expand such changes so that more of our young people have the option to live safer, healthier lives—through the teen years and beyond.

Has your teen or tween girl tried some of these new, safer products? What did she think?

Photo courtesy K. Walls via Flickr.com.

We’ve talked about chemicals that can mess with your hormones in a few former posts. We’ve mentioned how BPA in plastics can cause neural and behavioral effects in infants and children, how personal-care products with hormone-like chemicals like parabens and phthalates may contribute to cancer risk, and how pesticides can have hormone-disrupting effects.

If you’ve been keeping up on your research, you’ve probably already changed your habits to stay away from BPA, pesticides, parabens, and phthalates. However, hormone-disrupting chemicals are lurking in other places you may not have thought about. To help you increase your level of protection, we gathered some more information. (more…)

In one of our former posts, we talked about the Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) survey that found 16 chemicals in the blood and urine samples of 20 teen girls, ages 14–19 years. Phthalates, triclosan and parabens—linked with breast cancer and reproductive damage—were discovered, all of which are present in beauty, makeup, and personal-care products. We urged you to help your daughters find organic and chemical-free products that will help reduce their exposure.

We want to go a step further and ask you to take an overall look at the chemicals in your daughters’ worlds. The idea that chemicals in the environment and in the products we use can disrupt hormones and cause health problems is now an accepted fact. The question now is how much exposure translates to increased risk? (more…)

With the buzz getting louder about dangerous toxic chemicals in personal care products, you may find yourself convinced that it’s time to make some changes in your own life. Where do you start? Do you have to completely swear off cosmetics?

If you’re like me and love beauty treatments, skin care, and makeup, such a drastic step just isn’t realistic! Fortunately, we can take 12 simple steps to reduce our exposure and still enjoy safe products that not only make us look good, but feel like we’re doing something beneficial for our well being—and for the well being of the planet.  And as a rule of thumb, no matter what the claims are, always read labels! (more…)

With the introduction of the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010—a bill that would give the FDA authority to ensure personal-care products are free of harmful ingredients—debate is again raging between concerned citizens and activist organizations and companies in the beauty industry.

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We’ve talked about some of the harsh ingredients in shampoo, and how they can be drying to your hair and irritating to your skin. A recent study, however, has found something even more concerning—some ingredients in shampoo can react with disinfectants at U.S. wastewater treatment plants to form cancer-causing substances.
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Tuesday night, July 20th, I was so excited to attend the world launch of the short, online film, The Story of Cosmetics. Hosted by Mia Davis from Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, this very important and exciting event was also attended by actress Fran Drescher and many others concerned about safety in personal care products. Why? This short little 7-minute film helps expose the ugly truth about the beauty industry.

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Want to test out that new lipstick color? You’ll find a tester at the makeup counter—but you may want to think twice before using it.

A recent study conducted by Dr. Elizabeth Brooks, a biological sciences professor at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, found that lipstick, moisturizer, and mascara testers were contaminated with E. coli, staph, and strep bacteria. The percentage of testers contaminated? A whopping 100 percent! (more…)

You made the choice to breastfeed most likely because of the evidence that shows how healthy it is. But now studies are finding toxins in breast milk. Should you change your mind?

Because of its high fat and protein content, breast milk attracts heavy metals and other contaminants, and shows the “body burden” a mother has been exposed to over her lifetime. Scientists test it periodically to measure the amount of chemicals in the average person.

The bad news is that we’re carrying around more chemicals than ever before. According to the “New York Times,” Swedish researchers first discovered flame retardants called PBDEs in pike fish in 1981. (PBDEs have been found to hinder development in animal studies.) They went on to study human milk and found that from the early 1970s, when PBDEs first appeared commercially, to 1998, levels in breast milk were doubling every five years. Worse, levels in American women were 10 to 100 times higher than European women.
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For an average of five days per month, every month, many women are exposed to the ingredients that make up tampons and sanitary pads. You would think these items would be safe, especially since they come in contact with such a sensitive area, with potential to spread any product chemicals to the rest of the body.

Over the past few years, however, there has been concern about “dioxins” in these products, and what health dangers they may present to women. Dioxin is a by-product of the chlorine bleaching process and other manufacturing processes used to produce paper and rayon products. Tampons, for example, are usually made of cotton and rayon—rayon being a synthetic fiber made from wood pulp. During that process, dioxin is created. Up until the late 1990s, a chlorine bleaching process that also produces dioxin was used on both the rayon and cotton used in tampons. (Today’s bleaching process is chlorine free.) (more…)