Moms, consumer groups, nurses, and other health professionals have succeeded in getting Johnson & Johnson to begin to remove toxic chemicals from its baby shampoo. Two years ago, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics reported that J&J’s baby shampoo contained quarternium-15, which releases formaldhyde, as well as the chemical product 1,4-dioxane. Both formaldehye and dioxane are […]
Archive | Personal Care Products
Earth Day Health & Beauty Countdown: Switch Your Liquid Shampoo to a Bar
Earth Day is Friday, April 22. Why not use it to set some new goals that will help you green your health and beauty routine? Let’s start with shampoo. Conventional shampoo contains ingredients that may cause asthma or other human health problems and wreak havoc on water systems when they wash down the drain. Plus, they […]
Eco-Conscious Alternatives to ‘Not-So-Eco’ Disposable Razors
4.7kviewsDisposable razors are the ultimate throwaway. Two billion of them are sold and tossed every year in the U.S. alone, along with the paper and plastic packaging they come in. Fortunately, several good, green and ultimately money-saving options exist. For example, a durable electric shaver uses electricity, but saves money on shaving cream, hot water, and as much […]
Beauty…or the Beast? Depends on the Safe Chemicals Act.
Cosmetics and personal care products literally touch every part of our bodies. We’ve been convinced that they’ll make us beautiful. They often make us feel better. But evidence is emerging that the cumulative use of these products may be contributing to asthma, the onset of puberty in girls as young as three years old, and […]
We Don’t Wait for Our Child to Get Hit By a Car Before We Tell Her to Look Both Ways When Crossing the Street
“Look both ways before you cross the street.” That’s the Precautionary Principle in a nutshell. The Precautionary Principle was hammered out at the historic Wisconsin Wingspread conference in 1998 by scientists, researchers, and citizens. The principle is grounded in the simple belief that we should not wait to protect ourselves or the environment until we […]
New Book Highlights Environmental, Health Threats from Toxic Chemicals
Investigative journalist Nena Baker is the author of The Body Toxic: How the Hazardous Chemistry of Everyday Things Threatens Our Health and Well-being (North Point Press/Farrar, Straus and Giroux). I first met Nena when we both spoke at the Women, Health & Environment Conference sponsored by the Heinz Endowment in 2008. Since then, I’ve been a fan […]
Toxic Dust Bunnies: Environmental Health, Safety Threats from PBDEs
Part 2 – by Nena Baker, author, The Body Toxic: How the Hazardous Chemistry of Everyday Things Threatens Our Health and Well-being (North Point Press/Farrar, Straus and Giroux “Thirty years ago, about the time that PBDEs were introduced, veterinarians began noticing an uptick in feline hyperthyroidism, the most common endocrine disorder in cats. It causes […]
Be Safer and Smarter When Dyeing You’re Latest Do
448viewsDo you color your hair but worry about the impact hair dye could have on the environment as well as your own health and safety? I wish the information provided were more reassuring, but the truth is– we don’t know much about hair dye. It’s likely that when you dye your hair, a small amount […]