ARE WE BEING POISONED
WITHOUT KNOWING IT?
ARE WE BEING POISONED
WITHOUT KNOWING IT?
Written by: Viva ToxicI have been using skin care products on my children that might be harmful for them. This makes me feel awful, but then again, how could I have known? Reading product labels has never been any of my habits until I had a baby with sensitive skin and allergies. To help him, I thought I would gain some valuable information from the product labels, but I didn’t understand anything that was written on them. With all kinds of weird names that I couldn’t even pronounce, like Propylene Glycol, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Triclosan, MEA or DEA, I continued to use the same products that I had been using.The same antibacterial soaps, baby wipes, shampoo, shower gel and baby lotion were in my bathroom but I knew I should try to find something else. After all, I wanted to be the absolute best Mother for my baby.
Months later I met a lady who told me she was marketing Toxic Free products. Finally, I had met someone who could help me out with skin care products for my sensitive son!
When I started to use these products, I became more aware of what was in my previous products and how harmful they could be. I also thought about my mother, who was going through cancer treatment at that time.Could her cancer be a result of toxins she surrounded herself with?I had to learn more about the cosmetic industry and its power. Could it be possible that companies are putting harmful ingredients in our body care products without being stopped? I have always believed that if I care for my body, the products I choose would do me good. How wrong that turned out to be.
Here is what I found out:
In 1938, the FDA granted self-regulation to the cosmetics industry, allowing the industry to determine what they are putting in products, regardless of what tests may show. Most of the 25,000 chemicals used have not been tested for long-term toxic and systemic effects (affecting the entire body system). Many are outright toxins or contain toxic byproducts.The cosmetic manufacturer may use an ingredient or raw material and market the final product without government approval.
During our daily personal care regimen, most of us have exposed ourselves to more than 200 different chemicals, and often the same dangerous chemical in multiple products.
The skin is the largest organ and is permeable.If something can harm our skin, what do we think might be happening internally as these chemicals penetrate the skin?
Why are these chemicals allowed in our products?And why are there no warning labels on the bottles?I learned that harsh detergents in soaps and cleansers are stripping natural moisture from skin. Today, cosmetic laboratories add petroleum and other plastics such as mineral oil and propylene glycol into nearly every moisturizer in an attempt to replace the feeling of the skin's own natural moisture. But that same propylene glycol comes with a warning label that reads, "Avoid all contact with the skin!
Those are the exact ingredients in the bubble bath and shampoo that I bathed my son in! I faced the hard reality that what I thought was good for my son’s dry eczema skin was causing him greater harm, and these were products created JUST for babies.Nobody would harm a baby, I said to myself.But now I say that I cannot do this to my baby any longer and must find alternative skin and bath products for him that are truly safe.
Now I know that children are particularly sensitive to toxic chemicals because their brains and reproductive organs are still in the development stage and their bodies have less ability to break down chemicals. Babies are more likely to put things into their mouths that they shouldn't. Relatively speaking, they eat, drink, and breathe more for their weight, and thus expose their bodies to more contaminants than anyone else. Here Moms and Dads want to do the best for our children, but because the cosmetic industry can do more or less what they want, we the consumers, have no clue about what we are doing.
I also heard (and basically I knew this all the time, and some logic thinking won’t let you down) that most of my household cleaning products are very harmful. Why else do we need to lock them up after our babies start to move around? It is pure poison. We put poison on the very floor our babies are crawling on.Their hands are touching surfaces with poison.
A very useful tool in my search for information about toxins in body care products was a toxic alarm guide. It lists all harmful ingredients, what they are derived from, and how they can harm us. Every time I wondered about buying a body care product or a cleaning product I checked their labels. After a short while I had learned those difficult names. I knew that Triclosan, PEG, Cocamide MEA, DEA are lethal to our bodies. It became a routine for me to read labels, all kind of labels.
I succeeded in finding what I was looking for. We as consumers shouldn’t allow the big companies the right to still pester our kids and us with the toxic ingredients they are using.Stop using those harmful products on your baby and on yourself.
First of all we need to know more about the everyday products we are using. We need to understand that they may cause us harm. We must educate ourselves about what is healthy and how to detoxify our lives. All it takes is being passionate about ourselves and our children, getting the knowledge (remember knowledge is power!) and asking questions. I could do this. So can you.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." ~ Margaret Mead
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