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Mineral Oil
| Mineral oil is a frequent ingredient in commercial lotions, creams and baby care products. It is clear, liquid oil that has no scent and will not go bad. It is manufactured as a byproduct of the distillation of gasoline from crude oil. Mineral oil is the surplus liquid and is a very copious product—therefore very cheap.
Fact is, it is more cost effective to use it than to dispose of it.
The predicament is that mineral oil is alien to the human body and has numerous detrimental effects, in particular for babies. Mineral oil is the chief component in numerous baby care items such s baby oil, baby lotions, baby wash liquid soap and Vaseline.
Let’s face it, this is a petroleum by-product that covers the skin just like wrapping it in plastic wrap. It clogs the pores, hindering the skin’s ability to eliminate toxins, promoting skin disorders and decelerates skin function and cell development—resulting in the premature aging of your skin.
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We’ve noticed this ingredient in lip products occasionally, which causes us to ponder on who came up with that idea. First of all, they tell you it is going to shield your lips from sunburn and chapping. Petrolatum IS mineral oil jelly, and mineral oil causes numerous problems when used on the skin photosensitivity (i.e., promotes sun damage), and is inclined to interfere with the body’s own natural moisturizing mechanism, creating dry skin and chapping. Bottom line—you are being sold a product that actually causes the very condition it professes to alleviate. Why?—It’s cheap!!
In addition, EWG’s evaluation of product ingredient labels and information on cancer-causing chemicals identified three frequent impurities in personal care products that are associated to mammary tumors in animal studies—ethylene oxide, PAHs, and 1,3-butadiene. The ingredients that are sending up red flags in this instance are used in one of every four personal care products on the market. PAHs, or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, are frequent contaminants in petrolatum, also called petroleum jelly and sold under well-known brand names like Vaseline.
The verdict is yours and yours alone as to what personal care products you want to use on your skin. You are going to hear or read that mineral oil is completely safe to use because it creates a film or barricade on the skin that seals in moisture and fends off water. Remember, your skin is alive not a piece of machinery and needs to function by being able to breath. We could write more than you can imagine on mineral oil, but it would behoove you to educate yourselves with the following links that we have provided:
Related Links:
Toxic Impurities in Personal Care Products and Cosmetics
MSDS for Mineral Oil
FDA Response Regarding the Use of Mineral Oil as a Food Additive
Mineral Oil Linked With Lung Disease
Synthetic Fragrance
Fragrances that are synthetic and are utilized in personal care products can have as many as 200 ingredients. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to know what the chemicals are, since when you look at the label, it will simply read, “fragrance”. A few of the maladies caused by these chemicals are headaches, allergies, dizziness, rash, coughing, skin irritation and hyperpigmentation. Fragrances that are synthetically-derived are, for the most part, derived from petroleum sources. The chief motive for using synthetic fragrances is the price. We will give you a perfect example. Synthetic lemon “fragrance,” is approximately $1.00 per pound, compared to true lemon oil which is approximately $50.00 per pound. Big profits!
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There are some chemists that try and make a case that if they can manufacture a petrochemical “replica” of an essential oil that exists in nature, then they have the entitlement to call it “natural”. There is a procedure that is utilized in the making of synthetic fragrances called “head space technology”. It is used to create “nature identical” chemical fragrances. One company’s description goes like this,
“Headspace technology is an advanced system that captures and analyzes the scent molecules in the air around the source of each scent, extracting a reproducible formula. Using this process, and their own uncanny sense of smell, Demeter successfully creates idealized versions of each scent, whether isolating a single note, or expertly mixing various notes in the perfect proportions necessary to create a single fragrance experience.” This is very similar to producing a wax version of a banana. It looks like a banana, but do you really want to eat it?
Our DNA has progressed over millions of years and every cell in our body is encoded to react to the truly natural phytochemicals found in the real plants that have evolved alongside us. When you take a breath or eat plant materials, your body comprehends the molecules and knows how to process them safely. What does your body do when you give it the synthetic chemical fragrances? It responds with problems like asthma, migraines, hyperactivity disorder, rashes and depression.
These are just some of the synthetic fragrances that you might find:
•amyl acetate (banana fragrance)
•anisole
•apple fragrance
•banana fragrance
•benzophenones 1 to 12 (rose fragrance)
•berry fragrance
•bitter almond oil (benzaldehyde)
•cinnamic acid
•coconut fragrance
•cucumber fragrance
•honeysuckle fragrance
•lilac fragrance (anisyl acetate)
•mango fragrance
•melon fragrance
•methyl acetate (apple fragrance)
•methyl salicylate (wintergreen or birch fragrance)
•plum fragrance
•peach fragrance
•phenethyl alcohol (rose fragrance)
•strawberry fragrance
•vanillin
•verataldehyde (vanilla fragrance)
Related Links:
Information on Headspace Technology
Harvard Research Links Synthetic Fragrances to DNA Damage in Sperm
Toxic Effects of Synthetic Fragrances
Toxic Fragrances Video
Phthalates
Ok, what is a phthalate? They are a group of extensively used compounds known technically as dialkyl or alkyl aryl esters of 1,2-benzenedicarboxylic acid. There are numerous phthalates with countless uses, and just as many toxicological traits.
Phthalates moved stealthily into prevalent use over the last several decades due to the many useful chemical properties. Now they are everywhere, not just in the products in which they are deliberately used, but in addition as contaminants in just about anything. It is used in so many things now, that about a billion pounds per year are produced worldwide.
You can find phthalates in softeners, plastics, oily substances in perfumes, additives to hairsprays, cosmetics, lubricants and wood finishers. Or how about that cool “new car smell”, which becomes especially overpowering after the car has been cooking in the sun for a while—that is in part due to the strong odor of phthalates volatilizing from a hot plastic dashboard. When evening comes, the fumes cool and condense to form an oily coating on the inside of the windshield.
According to trial statistics from the Center for Disease Control, an approximate 5% of women of reproductive age from the general population are polluted with 75% or more of the level of just one of the phthalates, DBP, that may begin to damage normal reproductive tract development in their baby boys.
Phthalates show numerous toxic effects in animal studies following chronic exposure or even after short-term exposures in particularly vulnerable organisms. These consequences include: damage to the liver, kidney, heart, and lungs as well as adverse effects on reproduction, development, and blood clotting. The outcome of human exposure to phthalates has not been well examined. Lengthy dormant periods between pertinent exposures, and understated effects that are hard to detect complicate and limit the small amount of existing epidemiological studies of phthalate impacts in humans. But these restrictions do not completely expound why the impacts of phthalates on humans have not been systematically investigated.
Here are a few personal care products that may contain phthalates and which kind:
•Powders- (DEP)
•Fragrances- (DEHP, BBP, DBP, DEP)
•Nail Polishes- (DBP)
•Hair Preparations- (BBP, DMP, DBP, DEP)
•Skin Creams- (DEP)
•Deodorants- (DBP, DEP)
•Aftershaves- (DEP)
In August of 2000, scientists at the Department of Chemistry, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico discovered a link between exposure to DEHP and premature breast development in young girls.
In 2003, a study was done by scientists from the Centers for Disease Control, Harvard School of Public Health, the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, that stated, “men with higher phthalate levels have reduced sperm counts, lower sperm motility and more deformed sperm.”
Never let the absence of data prove the safety of a chemical. It only proves ignorance!
Related Links:
Phthalate Exposure During Pregnancy
Petition Against Soft Vinyl Toys
Toxic Toy Story
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