Personal Care Products

The two products I decided to look up in the Safe Cosmetics Database were my shampoo (Head & Shoulders Men – Refresh) and my deodorant (Dove Men+ Care – Extra Fresh). I was surprised to see that both products were considered moderate hazards. Both products were notably high in the allergies and immunotoxicity domain. My shampoo even had an old formulation included in the database that way beyond the limit for use restrictions. In what I assume is the new formulation, the use restrictions domain is notably lower, but still at a moderately high level. I think I will make changes to what I use. I am hoping to learn about better options that are available. I also think that people should know about the risks of the care products they use, especially since they use these every day. I think people, myself included, do not know about these risks because there is the assumption that these products are helping us to stay clean and presentable to others. We already frame these products as benefits to our well-being that we blind ourselves to the risks that they have.




Comments

  1. Chris DeatrasSeptember 2, 2018 at 10:45 PM

    "Industrial pollution begins in the womb."

    "Low doses matter."

    "What we need is a law that protects people and public health."

    These three quotes really hit me hard when I heard them. When Ken Cook revealed that the 10 Americans haven't been born yet, it gets you thinking about how deep the choices we make and don't make go. The products we buy, the companies we support, and the environment we manipulate don't only affect us who are in the world, but those that aren't in it yet.

    I found myself disgruntled at companies and people that say low doses don't matter. I think Ken Cook presented a great case for the opposite. It's sad how people can blind themselves to what's already out there in order to keep what affects them safe.

    He ended with a powerful message. The current laws protect the companies, the polluters, and the profit. What we need are laws that protect the people and public health. It has only been less than a week of engaging myself in this environmental health class, but it got pretty real pretty quick. I look forward to become mindful of the current exposures and how they affect the present as well as the future.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownNovember 5, 2018 at 5:57 PM

    It is so surprising to me that many of the products we use on a daily basis can hurt us so much. I agree that we have to make some effort to turn some of these things around. Thanks for you post Chris!

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownNovember 19, 2018 at 9:22 AM

    Hi Chris, I was shocked to discover that the Head and Shoulder had just high level of allergy toxicity. This is a common product that my dad loves in my household. After reading these post I have definitely informed my family to help reduce toxicity within my house. I agree with your other comment that low dose matters. I think often time we just think "oh it's so little, it won't really matter", but overtime it becomes a lot and it does affect our health.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Think About It - Website Exploration

There is a call for volunteers to support clinics in Daly City among other areas, as posted by the San Mateo Medical Center. As far as volunteering for disaster response teams, there is nothing on their website as of now. I was unable to look at the Disaster Healthcare Volunteers website since it was under maintenance, so I was unable to check if they have ways to provide healthcare training and experience to individuals who do not have them but show a willingness to volunteer. I think providing opportunities to educate and train more people to provide health care in emergency situations would be more beneficial than to wait for people with prior health care training and experience to come up and volunteer.
Read more

Occupational Safety and Health Organization

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has a public safety program that focuses on reducing or elimination injuries, illnesses, and deaths among public safety workers. Fire service, law enforcement, corrections, emergency medical service, and wildland fire service are all under this program. They cover many areas for public safety workers, which include 1) cancer, reproductive, cardiovascular and other chronic disease prevention, 2) immune, infectious and dermal disease prevention, 3) respiratory health, 4) traumatic injury prevention, and 5) health work design and well-being. One thing the site takes note of is that addressing these issues for one population is essentially addressing them for the entire community. Even though I am not a public safety worker, I can be certain that all the research going into making public safety workers safer and healthier will also be utilized to make me safer and healthier as well.
Read more

An Occupationally-Related Disease

Byssinosis or brown lung disease primarily affects workers in the cotton, hemp or flax industries. It causes asthma-like breathing difficulty and can lead to lung damage similar to that caused by irreversible chronic obstructive lung disease. In the 1960s, the disease was deemed nonexistent in the United States. It was not recognized by the scientific community in the United States until 1970. IT was after this point that the Occupational Safety and Health Act was developed to address byssinosis as well as other occupational diseases. The OSHA recognizes cotton dust as a hazard. As of now, the OSHA proposes having a cotton dust manual to solidify the policies and procedures to enforce the manufacturing operations. They also have a paper that talks about the effects of cotton dust exposure and lays down several options that can be used to reduce illness.
Read more