Toxic Cosmetics: Know What's in Your Medicine Cabinet

Many cosmetics contain levels of harmful chemicals that are dangerous to your health – and unregulated by the EPA and FDA. Are you poisoning yourself with the soap, shampoo, lotion, toothpaste, and makeup you use? Take matters into your own hands and educate yourself about the toxic chemicals that are commonly found in personal care products.

In 2011, UC San Francisco researchers reported that out of 268 pregnant woman studied, 100% of them carried up to 163 chemicals that could be passed on to their fetuses. These included pesticides and flame-retardants with proven health risks, as well as other chemicals from everyday household products and cosmetics. It’s important to realize that while our bodies may be able to tolerate a single chemical in a small dose, over time we are each exposed to thousands of chemicals that our bodies can absorb and store. This is referred to as “body burden.” The rise of diseases such as breast cancer, autism, and Parkinson’s parallels the rise of synthetic chemicals in our daily lives.

Since government regulations may never catch up with the thousands of dangerous chemicals in our everyday products, there are a few key things you can do to protect yourself. You can research the products you currently use at EWG’s Cosmetics Safety Database or look up individual ingredients at Toxipedia.org. Examine labels closely.  Labels on cosmetic products that tout themselves as “all-natural,” “dermatologist-tested,” “hypoallergenic,” “fragrance-free,” and “non-comedogenic” are meaningless. Look for products with the USDA Organic seal, which means they contain at least 95% certified organic ingredients. They may still contain toxins, though it won’t be as likely. Also beware of products with the following toxic chemicals:

• Lead – We all know how dangerous lead paint is, but did you know that lead is still found in some lipsticks and hair coloring kits? This is a neurotoxicant (a toxin that can cause damage to the nervous system).
• Mercury – Another neurotoxicant, it’s sometimes listed as “thimerosol” and can be found in some cosmetics such as mascara, skin-lightening creams, and anti-aging products.
• Formaldehyde – A known carcinogen, formaldehyde is found in many nail polishes and bath products. The state of California recently discovered that some nail polish containing formaldehyde was falsely labeled as being toxin-free. Look for brands recommended by the Cosmetics Safety Database.
• Parabens – These are estrogen mimickers that can lead to cancer, and are found in shampoo.
• Triclosan – Found in antibacterial soaps and hand sanitizer, it contributes to antibiotic-resistant bacteria and has been linked to hormone disruption.
• Phthalates -- Another hormone disruptor, they are also linked to asthma, allergies, and liver and kidney lesions. They’re hidden in the fragrances of many products.
• Fragrance – Chemicals used to scent products can be listed as “fragrance” without any specifics to avoid revealing proprietary information. Stay away from products that use this designation.
• Nanoparticles – These are microscopic ingredients that can penetrate cell walls and have been largely untested. They’re found in lotions, makeup, and sunscreen. Check out the book Sunscreens: Biohazard for a detailed study on nanoparticles and their connection to obesity, diabetes, asthma, and ADHD.
• Petroleum -- Watch out for mineral oil, petrolatum, liquid paraffin, toluene, and xylene. These are often contaminated with the carcinogen 1,4 Dioxane.

The good news is that there are many cosmetics that have been verified to be nontoxic, such as Hemp Organics lipstick, Mineral Fusion makeup, Jane Iredale makeup, and Surya Liquid Henna Hair Color, which is available at Co-Op and Whole Foods. You can also browse through the Cosmetics Safety Database to find their best-rated products, or get really crafty and make your own.

Do you have a favorite nontoxic beauty product? If so, please share it here!

 

The Fight for GMO Labeling

Genetically Modified Organisms, or GMOs, are not labeled on our food packaging, yet they comprise up to 90% of common products such as corn, soybeans, and sugar beets (and their derivatives, which include corn syrup, soy lecithin, and corn starch). As I mentioned in a blog post last year, it is vital to our individual health and to the health of our environment to avoid consuming toxic and altered foods. Bacterio-toxic (BT) corn, for example, is engineered to kill pests that threaten the corn crop, but when we consume it, it affects the healthy bacteria in our intestines. A European study done over ten years ago showed that GM genes can spread to people and animals.  A group of organic farmers recently sued Monsanto to have its patents on GMOs invalidated because they were worried that GMO crops planted adjacent to their fields would contaminate their organic crops through cross-pollination. A federal judge struck down their case, accusing the organic farmers of “creating a controversy where none exists.”  While many countries in the European Union have banned GM crops, and Peru recently announced a 10-year GMO ban, in the United States it seems that big corporations like Monsanto call the shots.

How can we avoid GMOs if we don’t know where they are? Companies that manufacture GMOs are insistent that GMOs cause no harm to human beings, so why do they refuse to label them? Marion Nestle, a public policy expert who was a member of the FDA’s Food Advisory committee when the first GM products became available in 1994, emphasizes that “Intelligent people can argue about whether GM crops are good, bad or indifferent for agriculture, the environment and market economies, or whether the products are safe. But one point is clear. The absence of labeling cannot be good in the long run for business or American democracy.”

We need to demand GMO labeling on our food products. A legal petition has been filed with the FDA, asking them to require labeling of GMOs. Please sign it at JustLabelIt.org. Additionally, if you are a registered voter in the state of California, you can add your signature to a ballot initiative that would allow voters to vote on labeling GMOs. Eight hundred thousand signatures must be collected by April 22 for this to make it onto the ballot, and signatures must be collected in person. Stop by my office to sign or visit LabelGMOs.org for more information.

While we wait to see if legislation will be passed, what can you do?

• Educate yourself by watching documentaries about modern agriculture, such as King Corn, Food Inc, and the Future of Food.
•   Keep up-to-date on GMOs in the news by following The Non GMO Project’s blog, Facebook, and/or Twitter pages, and take action when you can.
• Avoid purchasing products that are likely to contain GMOs. The Center for Food Safety has a comprehensive shopping guide you can download from their site, and they also have apps for iPhone and Android.

 What are your thoughts on GMOs? Share them here.

 

Update on FDA Supplement Ban

Supplements are still under attack by the FDA, despite thousands of signatures on petitions and intervention by members of the US Senate. As I mentioned in a blog post last year, the FDA has drafted an approval process for New Dietary Ingredients (NDIs) that would virtually wipe out our access to all supplements currently on the market . Thanks in part to people who wrote to their senators and representatives (in my office, we printed and mailed over 50 letters from our concerned patients), Senators Orrin Hatch from Utah and Tom Harkin from Iowa arranged a meeting with the FDA in January. You can read their letter to the FDA commissioner here.

Senators Hatch and Harkin were the original authors of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), which was designed to ensure “access to safe, affordable, dietary supplement products.” During their meeting they recommended that the FDA go back to the drawing board on NDI approval and write new guidelines that do not “undermine the balance Congress struck with DSHEA.” The FDA’s response was a resounding “no.”

Fortunately others in Congress are acting to stop the FDA. Representative Jason Chaffetz of Utah is urging the FDA to draft new guidelines for NDI approval, and Representative Randy Hultgren of Illinois recently made a one-minute speech on the floor of the House that stated his opposition to the FDA’s supplement guidelines. You can ask your senator or representative to make a similar one-minute floor speech by sending this online letter via the Alliance for Natural Health. They also have a form you can fill out to ask your congresspeople to add their signatures to Rep. Chaffetz’s letter.

Please act now and let your voice be heard! Now that we have Congress listening, it’s time for all of us to work together to stop the FDA from barring our access to the supplements we depend on for our health.

FDA Trying to Ban Supplements

On July 1, 2011, the FDA proposed new guidelines for food and drug manufacturers to follow to get approval for New Dietary Ingredients, or NDIs.  Bill S.1310, the "Dietary Supplement Labeling Act," would require supplement companies  to adhere to these guidelines, which state that any supplement currently sold that was not sold prior to 1994 must go through the same approval process that medication does.

In theory, this is a great idea: the government wants to make sure that substances people are consuming are safe. In reality, this could spell the end of the supplement industry, because the red tape is extensive. According to the FDA, a product would be classified as an NDI if any aspect of it is changed: if a capsule that was approved at 50 mg is now manufactured in 100 mg capsules, for example. If a supplement that was sold prior to 1994 has been chemically altered in any way, it would now be considered an NDI – and “chemically altered” includes baking, cooking, or using a botanical ingredient at a different life stage, such as using a bud instead of a flower. Supplements that contain several different ingredients would go through a separate approval process for every single one of those ingredients, making it cost prohibitive to bring them to market.

Additionally, each supplement company would have to seek approval for every single NDI they sell. If one company gets Vitamin B12 approved, that doesn’t mean that Vitamin B12 is approved for all companies. This is akin to every bread, cereal, and cookie company in the country being forced to seek approval for flour.

And here’s the tricky part:  if a drug company conducts research on a dietary ingredient as a medication and publishes its findings, that dietary ingredient can be patented by Big Pharma and supplement companies will no longer be able to use it. In 2009, this happened with a form of Vitamin B6 used in treating kidney disease.

Because the substances found in supplements occur naturally in nature, they cannot be patented. Big Pharmaceutical companies want to make it so the natural ingredients are able to be patented.  That way, they can have exclusive rights to the ingredients in order to make them prescription only, which means 3000% mark up or more.

We must act now and let the FDA and our Congresspeople know about our concerns. We must convince them that the FDA's new definition of NDI is too broad and that the approval process is so burdensome as to threaten the entire supplement industry – an industry we and our families depend upon for our health. The Alliance for Natural Health has an online petition you can send directly to the FDA, your Senators, and your Representative. I urge you to speak up, and to encourage your friends to speak up as well.  Don’t let the corruption in Washington take away your right to affordable supplements that nourish your health.

Food Rights and GMOs

Modern medicine is an interesting juxtaposition of brilliant scientific research vicariously mixed with big pharma/chemistry for profit.  The very nature of natural medicine is that the ingredients cannot be patented, commandeered to be exclusive ingredient horses.

It is very frightening that multinational companies, such as Monsanto, DuPont, and Syngenta, are constantly pushing the boundaries on their relentless efforts to patent the DNA of food – in other words, the DNA of life! Their exclusive rights to Genetically Modified Organisms, or GMOs, literally reverse engineer their original purpose, which was to improve yield and simplify production.  Instead, they break the very cycle of life by creating seeds that germinate one time only, so the farmer must continually purchase seed and cannot do his own seed saving. In addition, the companies that hold the patents prevent or restrict independent researchers from testing the seeds and examining their long-term effects, with devastating consequences.   BT (bacterio-toxic) corn, which was created to be poisonous to insect pests, is linked the Colony Collapse Disorder that has been wiping out honeybees all across the nation.

Regulatory boards like the FDA and USDA are in place to protect us, the consumers.  However, the Bush administration installed leaders who had ties to Monsanto and other such corporations. President Obama has been systematically replacing the leaders of the regulatory boards with science-based leaders. Since the midterm elections, the regulatory boards have been much more lax: planting of genetically-modified alfalfa has been approved, and it looks like GM salmon will be next. To my disappointment, it seems Washington has given up promoting our food rights for its centrist efforts.

How then can we change this fundamental driving force for medicine and pure, unaltered food?  Is it not that food rights are so basic to life that they should be protected from profits? What are your thoughts?

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There are two great documentary films that cover genetically modified food and the American food industry as a whole: Food Inc and The Future of Food. Both are available on DVD.

Other references include:

Eastabrook, Barry. “Feds on GMO Labeling: Don’t Tell, Don’t Ask.” The Atlantic, April 26, 2010

Gurian-Sherman, Doug. “No Seeds, No Independent Research.” The Los Angeles Times, February 13, 2011

Judis, John B. “Obama’s Quiet Revolution.” The Utne Reader, July-August 2010

Lean, Geoffrey, Volker Angres and Louise Jury. “GM Genes Can Spread to People and Animals.” The Independent (UK), May 28, 2000

Pollack, Andrew.  “Genetically Modified Salmon Gets Closer to Table.” The New York Times, June 25, 2010

Pollack, Andrew. “U.S. Approves Genetically Modified Alfalfa.” The New York Times, January 27, 2011

Smith, Jeffrey M. Seeds of Deception. Chelsea Green Publishing, White River Junction, VT,2003