By Chelsey Schweitzer

Staff Writer

Many common beauty products contain toxic substances that consumers don’t know about.

According to the nonprofit organization Campaign for Safer Cosmetics, the average American woman uses about 12 personal care products a day. This not only includes makeup but shampoos, lotions and perfumes as well. Also, according to the same source, of the more than 10,000 chemicals that are used in beauty products, over 89 percent have not undergone any kind of safety testing. This poses dangerous health risks as our skin absorbs these chemicals, which may lead to cancer and respiratory problems in the case of powders and sprays.

According to the Environmental Working Group, a group that created an online database that lists the concerning ingredients in beauty products and how safe they are to use, says, “Companies are allowed to use almost any ingredient they wish. The US government doesn’t review the safety products before they’re sold.”  This means that the products that we are purchasing are not being regulated to make sure that they’re safe. According to the same source, beauty products aren’t even required to have a full list of the chemicals that are used in the product, allowing the manufacturers to market items with dangerous chemicals without the consumer even knowing.

There have been various instances of dangerous chemicals in our beauty products, such as our shampoos having sodium laurel sulfate in them or many trusted name brand lipsticks having dangerous amounts of lead in them. Even the supposedly natural mineral-based makeups contain small particles of mica that we can inhale, which Forbes online magazine puts into perspective by pointing out that construction workers have to wear masks when dealing with mica.

While women have more products that expose them to these dangerous chemicals, men aren’t safe from the danger. Aftershave, cologne, shaving cream and shampoos are just a few of the items that men use that fall under the same category as all of the other beauty products. These products contain as many chemicals as the products women use and are regulated in the same way, putting men at as much risk as women.

I think that it is wrong that there are no regulations within the beauty industry. The food that we eat has regulations placed on it, so why not the items that we cover our skin with? I believe that we should have the right to know exactly what is in the products we use. I also think that cosmetic companies should strive to eliminate as many of these chemicals from their products as possible in order to provide their loyal customers with healthier products.

If you want to check the ingredients and the risk factors associated with the products you use, a good place to start is the Skin Deep Database, http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/,  created by the Environmental Working Group. That is just one small step towards knowing your products better so you can make an informed decision on whether to continue using that product.