smart ways to choose better body care

In gathering some fantastic pointers from the Environmental Working Group, below I have included some important steps to help us all when buying body care products. Choosing better body care is all about looking for products that actually meet their claims. Start looking for products that are free of ingredients that can harm your health or the environment, and steer away from labels that claim a product is “gentle”, “natural,” “organic” or “chemical free” unless you have read the label. Because there is no required safety testing for skin care, companies that make personal care products can use almost any chemical combination they want, regardless of the potential risks. So, always be sure to read all product labels and ingredient lists before you buy.

How to read a label
Every personal care product on the market must list the ingredients on the label. Label reading can be confusing – here are some tips to help you wade through the chemical names. You can approach ingredient lists in 3 parts:

1. Start at the end where preservatives are listed.
Try to avoid:
Words ending in “paraben”
DMDM hydantoin
Imidsazolidinyl urea
Methylchloroisothiazolinone
Methylisothiazolinone
Triclosan
Triclocarban
Triethanolamine (or “TEA”)

2. Check the beginning of the ingredients list.
Here you’ll find the soap, surfactant, or lubricant that has been added to make the product work. Try to avoid ingredients that start with “PEG” or have an “-eth” in the middle (e.g., sodium laureth sulfate).

3. Read the middle ingredients.
Here you’ll look for some common – but not essential – additives that may bring excess hazard: fragrance and dyes. On the label look for “FRAGRANCE,” “FD&C,” or “D&C.”

For the grown-ups in the house
While many parents pay more attention to their kids’ environmental health than their own, your body can be affected by toxic chemicals, too, especially if you’re breastfeeding, pregnant, or planning to be pregnant. EWG’s Safer Shopping List has 9 common-sense tips to reduce your own exposures, like buying fragrance-free, skipping the nail polish and using fewer products. You can also download our handy wallet guide, which lists some products and ingredients to avoid.

Just for kids
Extra caution is in order for kids because they receive greater exposures by weight than adults to contaminants in air, water, food, and everyday products. In addition, their immature metabolism and organ systems are typically less capable of fending off chemical assaults. Subtle damage to developing bodies that does not trigger immediate health effects may lead to disease later in life.
Follow EWG’s top 6 tips for kids:

1. Use fewer products and use them less often.
2. Don’t trust the claims. Check ingredients.
3. Buy fragrance-free products.
4. Avoid the use of baby powder on newborns and infants.
5. Do your homework at EWG’s Cosmetics Database
6. Always avoid EWG’s top 7 chemicals of concern for kids:

2-Bromo-2-Nitropropane-1,3 Diol
BHA
Boric acid and sodium borate
Dibutyl phthalate & toluene
DMDM Hydantoin
Oxybenzone
Triclosan

Check out EWG’s Parent’s Buying Guide to help you make good product choices when buying for your children.

You can also use EWG’s Cosmetics Database to choose safer products. In addition to generating a hazard score for your product (on a 1 to 10 scale), it allows you to search by brand and for products without certain ingredients or health effects. You can enter products that aren’t included, and create personal shopping lists – among other tricks.