Saturday, February 4, 2017

Personal Care Products

My first item is Neutrogena hand cream.  Before I searched my item, I assumed it would have lots of bad ingredients since I have a stereotype about Neutrogena brand.  However, I was little surprised that overall hazard level of  Neutrogena hand cream is in between low to moderate. It does not have ingredient that cause cancer.  Also, developmental & reproductive toxicity level is very low. The level of allergies & immunotoxicity and use restrictions are below the moderate as well.  Although there are some concerned ingredients, which I added below.
Other HIGH concerns: Endocrine disruptionMultiple, additive exposure sourcesOther MODERATE concerns: Biochemical or cellular level changesOther LOW concerns: Data gapsEcotoxicologyOrgan system toxicity (non-reproductive)


My another item that I use frequently is Burt's bees lip balm.  This product has even lower level of overall hazard than Neutrogena hand cream.  However, unlike Neutrogena hand cream, it contains small amount of the ingredient that causes cancer.  There is no developmental& reproductive toxicity like Neturogena.  Below are the concerned ingredients for this lip balm.
Other HIGH concerns: Multiple, additive exposure sourcesOther MODERATE concerns: Contamination concernsOther LOW concerns: Enhanced skin absorptionCancerData gapsEcotoxicology  

From Jane Hoolihan's video, she mentioned that we should consider lower amount exposure since it can cause even more harm.  It is more which ingredients were used in the products rather than the amount.  In particularly, parents have a right to protect their babies who are vulnerable for toxicity as she mentioned in the video.  It is easy to be convened by the advertisement if we don't take a look carefully what ingredients the products have.  Not only babies are vulnerable, but also teenagers are at high risk for exposure to toxicity.  They are more likely to buy products without researching unless their parents educate them to do so.    

Overall, my those 2 items has low level of hazard ingredients, so I will continue to use it now.  However, I will buy new brand for lip balm that does not contain ingredients that causes the cancer next time.  I think everyone should know about the risks of the items when they purchase new items.  In particularly, when they have babies, it would effect them more than adults.  Therefore, we need to decide to purchase the items based on information of toxicity.  

2 comments:

  1. Hi Yeana,

    I am so sad to discover that Burt's Bees has harmful substances in it. I always assumed their products were all natural and safe because of their marketing and branding tactics. Policies should include marketing regulations for brands to ensure consumers are not being deceived.

    In addition, I never knew that fragrances included substances that pose significant risks to one's health. This was my biggest takeaway from this section.

    -Elena

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Yeana,

    It has amazed me that so many of the products we use in our daily lives contain so many ingredients which are considered to be harmful to human health. Moreover, it is amazing that there appears to be little regulation on the use of harmful ingredients within manufactured products.

    ReplyDelete