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Maybe you should.

By EDWARD M. EVELD - McClatchy Newspapers

Now we're really getting personal. We're focused on your private place — the bathroom. That's generally where you use all that soap, body wash, shampoo and lotion. It all gets applied to your body, including all the chemicals within.

Eco-groups and environmental researchers have raised alarms about the cumulative health effects of many of the compounds found in personal-care products. While many industry experts say the products are safe, some scientists and others outside the industry disagree.

In her book, published this year, MacEachern says women spend 85 cents of every dollar in the marketplace and are predisposed to protect the environment and health. That puts them in a strong position to force the greening of products, she argues. And in the personal-care category, they're the target audience.

Even so, Main said, consumers seem to be more concerned about broader health effects — that leftover chemicals from soaps, cosmetics and other products are sullying the environment and threatening wildlife and the water supplies.

Check out the labels. There's some merit in choosing products with the shortest ingredient lists. The more complicated the formulation, the more likely it has lots of synthetic ingredients.

Also, be aware of meaningless terms. Marketing words on the label such as "natural," "botanical" and even "organic" might mean very little, because no government agency is monitoring their use.

Beauty products: The Dirty Dozen 

The National Geographic Green Guide authors say there are 12 chemical ingredients to avoid in cosmetics and other personal-care products.

• Antibacterials: Overuse might be contributing to increasingly resistant bacteria, and they contaminate the environment. Triclosan is the agent used in many soaps.

• Coal tar: Possible carcinogen in dandruff shampoos and anti-itch creams. Dyes with a coal tar base are used in toothpaste (FD&C Blue 1) and mouthwash (FD&C Green 3).

• DEA: Stands for diethanolamine and is used in shampoos to increase lather. Can affect hormones and cell functioning and development.

• 1,4-Dioxane: May show up as a contaminant in personal care items, including shampoo and body wash; in products that contain sodium laureth sulfate; and ingredients expressed as “PEG,’ “-xynol,’ “ceteareth’ and “oleth.’

• Formaldehyde: Found in such products as baby bath soap, nail polish and hair dyes as a contaminant or break-down product of diazolidinyl urea, imidazolidinyl urea, bronopol and quaternium compounds. Formaldehyde is a probable human carcinogen and can have other toxic effects.

• Fragrance and phthalates: The term “fragrance’ can be hiding suspect substances called phthalates, which may affect hormones and cause reproductive and developmental harm.

• Lead and mercury: Lead can show up in products that have hydrated silica, such as in toothpaste. Mercury, found in the preservative thimerosal, is in some mascaras.

• Nanoparticles: Tiny particles of such things as zinc oxide and titanium oxide in cosmetics and sunscreens could cause cell damage, but they´re tough to track. Some manufacturers now advertise products that are free of nanoparticle-size ingredients.

• Parabens: Common preservatives in toiletries, parabens grew controversial due to their weak estrogenic effects in some animals studies. Check for methyl-, ethyl-, propyl-, butyl- and isobutylparaben.

• Petroleum distillates: Check for the terms “petroleum’ and “liquid paraffin’ in such products as mascara and foot-odor powder. The European Union restricts or prohibits petroleum distillates as possible human carcinogens.

• PPD: P-Phenylenediamine can be found in hair dyes and may cause irritation and damage to the nervous system and lungs.

• Hydroquinone: Can be found in skin creams and under-eye treatments. Limited evidence links it to cancer in laboratory animals.

GIVE IT A TRY

1. Take stock of your assortment of personal-care products and find two you can do without. In the future, that´s two fewer items to purchase.

2. Give your body a breather one day a week from all products except the very basic, such as soap and toothpaste. OK, and a dab of deodorant.

3. Do some label reading and a bit of shopping to replace two items of questionable chemical formulation with two that are free of such things as phthalates and parabens.

RESOURCES

• At cosmeticsdatabase.com, the Environmental Working Group has a searchable database it calls “Skin Deep.’ Type in the name of a product to find the ingredients on that product´s label plus an assessment of the health risks of those ingredients.

• Worried about baby? The Environmental Working Group site also offers baby product suggestions, including shampoo, soap, wipes and diaper cream, that avoid troubling chemicals (California Baby, and Weleda, to name a few). Go to cosmeticsdatabase.com.

• The Natural Products Association this year established a certification program that defines “natural’ and uses a seal to designate skin and hair products that meet the standards. Certified products must be made from at least 95 percent nonsynthetic ingredients. For more information, go to naturalproductsassoc.org.

• The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a coalition of health, environmental and consumer-rights groups, offers a “compact for safe cosmetics.’ Companies that sign the agreement pledge not to use chemicals that are known or are strongly suspected of causing cancer. They pledge to replace chemicals with safer alternatives. For a list, go to safecosmetics.org.

If your favorite products contain ingredients you want to avoid, you´re not stuck. Other companies are responding to demands like yours, with more and more items free of fragrances and parabens, for instance.

A few possibilities include Aubrey Organics, Burt´s Bees, Weleda, Dr. Hauschka, EO Products, Trillium Organics, Honeybee Gardens, Super Salve Co. and Little Moon Essentials.

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