Are cosmetics making u.s. sick? Five surprising facts that you probably don't know

The documentary Toxic Beauty takes a look at the potentially harmful ingredients used by the cosmetic manufacture.

By Davida Gragor

The Environmental Working Grouping (EWG), a U.S. non-profit, says American women slather an boilerplate of 168 chemicals on their bodies every day. The cosmetics manufacture claims that consumers accept nothing to worry about. Merely according to Toxic Beauty, a new moving-picture show from the documentary Aqueduct, many ingredients in dazzler products accept been linked to wellness bug, including hormonal disruption, certain cancers and infertility.

In the documentary, we encounter scientists, regulators and consumers who are looking for an reply to one very of import question: Are cosmetics making u.s. sick? Here are some things we learned from the film.

Beauty manufacture regulation is a 'postal service-marketplace' system

Amidst many Canadians, there'southward a general assumption that the government protects consumers from harmful ingredients in the products nosotros buy. While this may be true for food, the film says the beauty manufacture is far less regulated.

Manufacturers must provide Health Canada with a list of ingredients in personal care products, and these products are expected to come across certain requirements, but regulation happens afterwards putting them on store shelves.

"It's non like you have to examination the production get-go, make sure information technology's safe, and and then it goes on the market," says Julie Gelfand, former federal commissioner of the environs and sustainable development. "No, it goes on the market, and and so if in that location are incidents, that'due south when the regulatory system kicks in. Nobody's testing to encounter if that eyeshadow has in it what it says it has in it."

Baby powder with talc may pose serious health risks

The connexion between asbestos and cancer has been well established. However, not many people know that talc — the chief ingredient in baby powder — is mined, and that many talc mines also incorporate asbestos. While manufacturers accept long claimed their products are safe, asbestos contamination in personal care products is a business organisation amongst many scientists, advocates and consumers, who believe talc is a dangerous, carcinogenic ingredient to use on our bodies, specially over long periods of time.

In Toxic Dazzler, we follow the class action lawsuit confronting Johnson & Johnson and meet women who merits that their cancer was acquired by prolonged utilize of the company'due south babe pulverization products.

Merely 500 corrective ingredients are banned in Canada vs. 1,300 in Europe

The European Union has banned more than i,300 ingredients from being used in personal intendance products, while Canada's lists around 500 ingredients equally either prohibited or restricted. The U.S.? 11. According to the documentary, many corrective ingredients still allowed in North America have been linked to cancer or are suspected endocrine disruptors, chemicals that interfere with the hormones in the body.

Others have been associated with everything from headaches to organ damage to early onset of puberty. These potentially chancy ingredients are found in many common personal care products such as makeup, shampoo and fifty-fifty shaving cream.

Essential oils aren't necessarily good for you

Essential oils are quickly becoming a massive trend in the personal care industry and are oftentimes advertised as a cure-all for many ailments. The global market is estimated to hit $15 billion US by the year 2026.

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While these oils may odour great to some, "natural" doesn't mean rubber. These concentrated, highly strong constitute essences can irritate the pare and may crusade other health issues. In Toxic Beauty, professor of environmental health Maryse Bouchard cites lavender oil equally an example. "It's being used in a lot of products, and information technology's actually a pretty powerful endocrine disruptor," she says.

The words 'fragrance' and 'parfum' may exist hiding potentially hazardous ingredients

Companies generally want to keep their signature scents a secret, so the Canadian and U.South. governments allow manufacturers to use the word "fragrance" or "parfum" on packages instead of listing all of their ingredients. Some encounter this dominion as a loophole in the industry. "Those grab-all terms tin conceal a range of potentially chancy chemicals," Gelfand says in the pic.

In a study of 17 popular fragrance products, the EWG reported an average of 14 "secret" chemical ingredients not listed on the product labels.

At the terminate of the day, the only manner to know which personal care products are safe to use is to be an informed consumer. Watch Toxic Beauty.

Available on CBC Gem