Toxic Beauty
WRITTEN BY Nancy Palermo Lietz, MD
Putting on makeup shouldn’ t be like playing with matches.
The average woman may place 15 – 20 beauty products on herself, exposing her body to up to 170 different ingredients daily. Recent studies suggest we may acquire more toxins through skin absorption and inhalation than through the food we eat. This raises new interest in many beauty care products known to contain potential toxic and carcinogenic chemicals.
There is growing interest among consumers to eat organic foods free of processing and pesticides, yet they appear to be ignoring the impact of their personal care products on their health and well-being. The skin is the body’ s largest organ, so there is more surface area to absorb synthetic, toxic chemicals. Incidentally, many beauty care products are designed to penetrate the skin’ s exterior barrier more readily getting the toxins into the bloodstream within minutes!
Most consumers assume that if a product contains a potentially dangerous chemical, a manufacturer would avoid using it, or at the very least would notify the public of potential concerns.