Eye Opener: Environmental Working Group

For this weeks eye opener we visited the site Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database. Once I located this site I picked one cosmetic item that I use and looked it up to determine how harazrdous it is to my health. I decided to look up the Clearasil Deep Cleaning Pads that I use after I wash my face. I was very surprised to see some of the results that showed up. This product was rated a 6/10 which is "moderatly hazardous" to our health. The ingredients in this product can be linked to cancer, developmental/reproductive toxicity, violations, restrictions and warnings, allergies and immunotoxicity and finally  neurotoxicity, persistence and bioaccumulation, organ system toxicity (non-reproductive), miscellaneous, multiple, addictive exposure sources, enhanced skin absorption, contamination concerns, occupational hazards.

I was most shocked to see that this products ingredients could be linked to cancer. However, the skeptic in me says that a lot of things we are exposted to cause cancer and like most things if you are exposed to these ingredients in moderation it doesn't matter.

I did spend a little extra time on this site looking at what products have a lower number on the hazardous scale and will consider using some of those products in place of what I use now.