Why is it important to read labels on our personal and cleaning products?

So we know what’s in them. There are a number of threats to our personal health and safety that could be avoided if we, as consumers, took the time to be selective about what we expose ourselves to. To be clear, it’s important to mention that there is a pretty staggering reality one has to face when a decision is made to become an informed citizen of planet earth…I like to call it ‘analysis paralysis’, and it happens when we become mentally paralyzed by all the horrifying details of the reality we never knew existed out there, and different people can react in a couple of common ways. Some people become defiant, or worse, fall into denial and emphatically oppose empirical scientific evidence by rationalizing that scientists are all a bunch of quacks anyways, and the ‘facts’ they report are really tied into some conspiracy theory to keep people nervous and pliable, and the way we live/act/consume is just fine the way it is. This mentality can be almost as frightening as the situations it is resultant from, for a number of different reasons. First, people in denial will fight to stay in denial, no matter how much reality dictates otherwise. Finite research findings and cutting edge science are being applied to solve problems in every area of our lifestyles, which broaden the options available to consumers and present information in a more open, incontrovertible light. The people who are fighting against this progress and fact will continue to fight into perpetuity until they decide otherwise, which makes it hard on everyone in support of progress and conscientious living by drawing a line in the proverbial sand and forcefully expecting society to choose a side. Another danger of denial, especially when it comes to long term exposure to some unnecessary chemicals from our personal products, is that, despite the long term health impacts being severe, there are few to no precursors to indicate a problem is actually happening. In the environment, there a small class of compounds called bioaccumulators. Typically, these bioaccumulators are synthetic chemicals like pesticides or toxins that have been introduced through human activity. Bioaccumulators, aptly named, accumulate in the cells of living tissues and build up over time within an organism in response to long term exposure. These accumulations of toxins can produce a very severe, and seemingly very sudden, series of biological reactions when a (usually unknown and unstudied) level of a particular toxin is reached. An example of a bioaccumulator is mercury, a heavy metal known to induce acute neurotoxicity in both humans and animals in small doses. This is relatively new scientific knowledge, as anyone who used to use a mercury thermometer is aware. Bioaccumulators have staying power in the environment, and are oftentimes transferred up a food chain as food is assimilated into the cells of the consuming organism. Many of the synthetic chemicals used as preservatives and fillers in our personal care products have not been studied for long term health impacts, and of the ones that have, many are bioaccumulators. The real breaking news here is that synthetic chemicals, through the cutting edge science that many are in denial of, have been rendered unnecessary in the manufacturing of household and personal care products. Denial and unnecessary chemicals go hand in hand to harm people’s futures in a way that far outweighs any initial discomfort from analysis paralysis.
Some other people may become overwhelmed by the amount of information available, so much so that they have a hard time distinguishing between scientific fact and findings, and the un-backed claims that are formulated to support cheap marketing strategies, and thus fall into a state of hypochondria, leading to an extremist lifestyle that is hard to maintain, expensive to pursue and emotionally, physically and intellectually draining. This is also a dangerous place to be, as it represents all of the strains our modern day life places on our own well-being. Over-educating oneself, especially in a world of treacherous false information and soulless marketing, can and will burn people out, leading to paralyzing phobias and a whole host of neurosis unique to the 21st century, not to mention the health problems that go along with being strung out on false information all the time. This is an area muddled by forces acting at cross-purposes – a genuine quest for knowledge, and a primary lack of the proficiency needed to get it. Research is a skill, and even more so when it comes to published scientific findings about impacts to our health and well being. It’s hard to know what to listen to, and harder still to understand how to operate within a system of checks and balances so obviously not designed for the optimization of human health and vitality. For an example, let’s think about bleach – the ubiquitous symbol of cleanliness in the American home, and a staple handed down from generation to generation to separate us from those too ignorant or unfortunate to live without it amidst filth and disease. Bleach, or sodium hypochlorite, like most other chemicals, carries with it a material safety data sheet, or MSDS, that has collected information on the potential for immediate toxicity and danger. These MSDSs are a fixture in chemistry labs the world over, and reviewing one from any undergraduate-level lab will tell you that a solution that is 4-6% sodium hypochlorite, the same concentrations in the bleach we buy at the grocery store, carries with it the risk of chemically burning skin, permanent damage to the tissues of the eyes and moderate to severe irritation to the throat if inhaled. In addition to the immediate effects of bleach through inhalation and ingestion, bleach is considered to be highly toxic if absorbed into the skin and assimilated into the blood stream, with empirical research linking exposure to kidney failure, damage to the nervous system and malignant tumors. It is recommended, and in fact enforced, that anyone working with bleach in a laboratory wears protective goggles, gloves and takes the utmost caution not to expose soft tissues to prolonged contact. A simple glance at a gallon of household bleach, however, will show a distinct lack of precautionary information on par with that received by researchers using the same chemical solution in a laboratory. How is this even possible? In this country, we have laws to ensure the safety of our products and homes, right?? While the government does the best it can do to regulate certain industries, personal care products and household cleaning materials are not subject to a centralized set of laws and limitations in labeling, and as such we cannot reasonable expect everything we see and consume to be safe. What we can expect, however, is to be able to maintain our standard of living without the use of harmful chemicals, even in our cleaning products. Unnecessary chemicals lead to unnecessary threats to our health and safety, and to unnecessary fears about a system we can simultaneously operate within and disagree with.
Still some people can see through the fog of fear and understand that, while there is no perfect solution to all of the problems of this life, there is a tremendous opportunity for regular people to make the best decisions possible and live each day mindfully and informed. This is where we should all strive to be – in the land of promise and enthusiasm, knowing that for every problem we face, every threat we find lurking in the darkness, there are a multitude of solutions out there that make sense. I encourage you all to be active participants in your own health and safety. Read labels, and understand that you can stay away from unnecessary chemicals by finding manufacturers who promise not to use them.
For more information on what labels really mean, please visit Consumer Reports at : http://www.greenerchoices.org/
To print a wallet-sized guide to avoidable and harmful chemicals in personal care cosmetics products, please visit the David Suzuki Foundation website: http://www.davidsuzuki.org/publications/resources/2010/sustainable-shoppers-guide-to-the-dirty-dozen-ingredients-to-avoid-in-your-cosme/index.php