I'm sure you've all seen the recent - 19 dry shampoos recalled over potential cancer-causing ingredient.
Unilever recently announced a voluntary recall of 19 popular dry shampoo aerosol products sold in the United States due to concerns about benzene, a chemical known to cause cancer.
Carcinogen: A carcinogen is any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that promotes carcinogenesis, the formation of cancer. This may be due to the ability to damage the genome or to the disruption of cellular metabolic processes
Take a moment to ask yourself how many products you use in a typical day. Cream, lotion, deodorant, soap, perfume, makeup, lip balm? Now ask yourself how many ingredients are in those products.
This wouldn’t be so concerning if the ingredients in our cosmetics were actually regulated. Correct, safety tests are not required for the cosmetic industry!
Even more disturbing is the fact that many companies continue to use toxic chemicals in our products simply because they aren't banned yet, not to mention they are much cheaper to use than organic ingredients. While the EU has banned over 1300 chemicals, the FDA has only banned 8 and restricted 3. That’s quite a large discrepancy!
Which makes me pause to ask, just how much of that toxic gunk is entering our skin? We have 2 million holes across our skin. 2 million! And unlike food, which has an opportunity to filter out the things that don’t belong through our digestive system, our skin doesn’t quite work in the same way.
WAYS TO REDUCE YOUR CHEMICAL EXPOSURE
Once most chemicals make their way into our bodies, they tend to accumulate over time. Fortunately, there are steps we can take to help reduce our chemical exposure. Here are some tips to help get you started!
Start Small: It can be impossible (and completely overwhelming!) to remove so many products from your routine overnight so start small by eliminating those that pose the most risk, such as:
● Products You Use Often: Daily or multiple times a day.
● Products You Leave on the Longest: Cream, lotion, sunscreen, etc.
● Products Used on Babies + Children: Babies have thinner skin so they are at a greater risk for absorption.
● Shampoos + Conditioners: These tend to absorb into the skin due to the increased absorption rate of the scalp and also wash over the rest of our bodies.
● Antibacterial Anything: While some situations call for antibacterial soaps or hand sanitizers, they can cause more harm than good when overused, as they also kill good bacteria
At Ideally You, we can help switch to clean, safe products, with your skin care, makeup, sunscreen and tanning lotions.
To see the full list of recalled dry shampoos: