Simple Sugars Scrubs

Evil ingredient: phthalates.

Sunday, January 31st, 2010

Phthalates. What? How the heck do you even say that word?

THAL-ate. That’s how you say it.  And no matter how you say it, It doesn’t belong in your prodcuts. To be more precise, phthalates are a group of colorless, oily liquids classified as industrial plasticizers. In other words, they make vinyl products soft and pliable (think baby toys?!), they are responsible for the smell of your shower curtain, pool inflatables even your “new car” (who knew it was toxic?). They also help make your perfume “stay with you” and keep your nail polish from chipping. As a matter of fact, phthalates are so ubiquitous that if a product lists “fragrance” on its label chances are good that it contains phthalates. And there are lots and lots of products that have fragrance on the label.

So why are phthalates bad for you? Shown to damage the liver, kidneys, lungs and reproductive systems in animal studies, phthalates can be absorbed through the skin or inhaled. Scientists at government agencies in both the U.S. and Canada agree that exposure to the chemicals could cause a wide range of health and reproductive problems in people. (environment.about.com/od/healthenvironment/a/phthalates.htm)

That’s kind of putting it mildly. My research turned up some pretty disturbing stuff. In a nutshell, women of child bearing age should avoid phthalates. Ironically, this is the group that has the most exposure. CDC scientists found that phthalate exposures for more than two million women of childbearing age may be up to 20 times greater than for the average person in the population. (www.safecosmetics.org/article.php)

The biggest risk seems to be to male babies born to women exposed to these chemicals over time. I’m not going to list the scary birth defects (go ahead and google hypospadias), but I am going to ask, no beg, you to read the report titled “Not Too Pretty” at this link tinyurl.com/yze2adc . Seriously, if men got a hold of this report, I’d bet my last buck that no woman would EVER get another bottle of perfume from a man and rightly so. One more interesting tidbit: phthalates also happen to be regulated by the EPA as air and water pollutants and banned from use in cosmetics in Europe.

Ok, so now that we’re afraid of phthalates, what do we need to look for on the label? Well, that’s the tough part. See, when the Environmental Working Group tested 72 products, although phthalates were present in close to 3/4  of them, they weren’t listed on the labels of any. How can that happen, you ask? Turns out there’s a significant loophole in the law that allows phthalates (and other chemicals) to be added to fragrances without disclosure to consumers. Hmmm. Talk about adding insult to injury. If they are listed you would want to look for DEP, DBP, BBzP or DEHP. So look for natural or botanical fragrances on the label. Here’s a tip: if the fragrance is similar to a type of perfume or something like” tropical breezes” or “summer rain”  for example, there’s a pretty good chance there are phthalates in there.

Now don’t forget phthalates are in lots of things that you come into contact with everyday. So you are going to be exposed to them. If you can control the exposure you get through your personal care products, then why not?

And just to be clear, we’ve gone to great lengths to make sure that no Simple Sugars all-natural body, facial or foot scrubs contain any phthalates.

Finally, in the interest of fair balance – if you’re interested in hearing what the chemical industry has to say about how much easier these harmful chemicals make our everyday lives, you can google phthalate information center.  Wonder how they’d like to have hypospadias?

Tags: all-natural body and facial scrubs, phthalates
Posted in Evil Ingredients | Comments Off