Lisa, you make many good observations. Though I doubt any company is trying to kill is consumers. More likely some try to maximize their profits with little concern for the potential risks created as a result.
Chidi Beauty | Green beauty for all skin tones http://chidibeauty.com
@Pepper7- Thanks for sharing this Margi! I appreciate it. :)
@Jackie Mayse - Wonderful! Let's spread some good news around - much better than fearmongering!
@ChidiBeauty - While I agree that companies are trying to maximize their profits (anything else would not make good business sense), I cannot agree with your standpoint of them taking 'little concern for potential risks'. Companies NEED to consider the potential risks as they want to put a successful (safe and effective) product onto the market. It's OK to go green with cosmetics (I've been calling myself a greenie for ages), but it is NOT OK to diss others to sell your own products. Perspective, please :)
Oh yes, of course they must consider risks! The law requires it to a certain extent. Once that threshold is met, anything more is left to the discretion of the brand. I look forward to the day when brands stop using fearmongering as a marketing tactic.
Chidi Beauty | Green beauty for all skin tones http://chidibeauty.com
Thank You Thank You Thank You!! I couldn't agree with you more and Applaud the brilliant way you wrote this article! I hope it's ok with youvif we share!!
It's so heartening to see such a well-written and balanced piece! You shed a lot of light on the ugly side of skin care: fearmongering. It's rampant and never backed by credible science.
As a Formulator, I will often create a product for a client that complies with an accepted natural standard using ECOCERT materials. The client will love the product and we will go forward toward manufacturing.
Then weeks later I will get a harried email. "Blogger123 says that the raw materials we are using don't sound natural" or "I want to know everything about the materials and so, can you get the company to send me information about how they are produced?"
All this detracts from the true focus of marketing a safe and effective product. I enjoyed your breakdownof the cookie as it really shows how quickly this "research" can get out of hand.
Thank you Michelle - I hope the information is helpful!
Kirsten Connor said…
Hi Lise- I love everything about this article. The tone, the simplicity and the fact that it really shows once and for all how silly it is to pick apart ingredients without having the full picture. May I share?
Thank you for your kind words Kirsten. You are welcome to share this article by posting a link to it. Sorry to put up rules here, but this entire article was recently plagiarised by someone who thought it was ok to copy paste it and put their own name on it, so I would request it be shared by posting a link to this page. Thank you for wanting to spread this message. :)
Hi Lisa While I commend the spirit with which you have written this article, I still think it is very important for consumers to become smarter in choosing both food and bath and body products. A couple of examples: artificial food coloring. There are now a ton of products that have food coloring. Three of these dyes that are used widely in the US have benzidene which a study published in an NIH paper shows to be a human and animal carcinogen. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2957945/
The FDA of course approves of this to be used because the concentration is too low to cause harm. Which is the same argument used to permit the use of lead acetate in a men's hair product to cover grey. There are scientific papers written that conclude there is NO safe level of exposure to lead. Although most of the Questionable ingredients are present in low concentrations, the lack of transparency in labeling products and the absence of audits in the bath and body industry, exposes consumes to risks - and given that the combination of multiple food and bath and body products consumed, concern about the cumulative impact of the effects of these substances on health is understandable. In my opinion, it is the responsibility of consumers to vet out what is in food and other products to ensure safety, ethical practices in mass manufacturing especially when it comes to children. The truth is we will never be able to isolate a health issue to a certain ingredient. But like you say, the way everything we put in our bodies can interact with each other, how they build up due to cumulative effects etc. are common sense concerns.
I do agree that consumers must get smart about vetting out scientific studies from alarmist blogs or websites written by people who have no formal training or credibility in health or chemistry. Just because this needs more effort does not imply consumers can blindly consume if they have any regard for what they are putting in their bodies. This article in the Scientific American illustrates the impact consumers can have on changing the way big companies approach what they put in their products. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/does-artificial-food-coloring-contribute-to-adhd-in-children/
Hi Sgopalak - Thanks for your input. I do not disagree with you. I believe it is a wise consumer who educates themself about ingredients in consumables and cosmetics. The problem is, this is not as easy as we woould all like it to be. My main complaint is when people 'religiously' rely on ingredients databases that are NOT providing the full picture and designed to confuse and frighten. I believe consumers can make a difference by demanding safe products, but they deserve to be properly educated - not fed propaganda.
Comments
Chidi Beauty | Green beauty for all skin tones
http://chidibeauty.com
@Pepper7- Thanks for sharing this Margi! I appreciate it. :)
@Jackie Mayse - Wonderful! Let's spread some good news around - much better than fearmongering!
@ChidiBeauty - While I agree that companies are trying to maximize their profits (anything else would not make good business sense), I cannot agree with your standpoint of them taking 'little concern for potential risks'. Companies NEED to consider the potential risks as they want to put a successful (safe and effective) product onto the market. It's OK to go green with cosmetics (I've been calling myself a greenie for ages), but it is NOT OK to diss others to sell your own products. Perspective, please :)
Chidi Beauty | Green beauty for all skin tones
http://chidibeauty.com
I hope it's ok with youvif we share!!
As a Formulator, I will often create a product for a client that complies with an accepted natural standard using ECOCERT materials. The client will love the product and we will go forward toward manufacturing.
Then weeks later I will get a harried email. "Blogger123 says that the raw materials we are using don't sound natural" or "I want to know everything about the materials and so, can you get the company to send me information about how they are produced?"
All this detracts from the true focus of marketing a safe and effective product. I enjoyed your breakdownof the cookie as it really shows how quickly this "research" can get out of hand.
I love everything about this article. The tone, the simplicity and the fact that it really shows once and for all how silly it is to pick apart ingredients without having the full picture.
May I share?
Kirsten
While I commend the spirit with which you have written this article, I still think it is very important for consumers to become smarter in choosing both food and bath and body products. A couple of examples: artificial food coloring. There are now a ton of products that have food coloring. Three of these dyes that are used widely in the US have benzidene which a study published in an NIH paper shows to be a human and animal carcinogen. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2957945/
The FDA of course approves of this to be used because the concentration is too low to cause harm. Which is the same argument used to permit the use of lead acetate in a men's hair product to cover grey. There are scientific papers written that conclude there is NO safe level of exposure to lead.
Although most of the Questionable ingredients are present in low concentrations, the lack of transparency in labeling products and the absence of audits in the bath and body industry, exposes consumes to risks - and given that the combination of multiple food and bath and body products consumed, concern about the cumulative impact of the effects of these substances on health is understandable. In my opinion, it is the responsibility of consumers to vet out what is in food and other products to ensure safety, ethical practices in mass manufacturing especially when it comes to children. The truth is we will never be able to isolate a health issue to a certain ingredient. But like you say, the way everything we put in our bodies can interact with each other, how they build up due to cumulative effects etc. are common sense concerns.
I do agree that consumers must get smart about vetting out scientific studies from alarmist blogs or websites written by people who have no formal training or credibility in health or chemistry. Just because this needs more effort does not imply consumers can blindly consume if they have any regard for what they are putting in their bodies. This article in the Scientific American illustrates the impact consumers can have on changing the way big companies approach what they put in their products. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/does-artificial-food-coloring-contribute-to-adhd-in-children/
Thanks for reading my long comment!
regards
sindhu surapaneni