Ingredients In Cosmetic Products That Cancer Patients Should Avoid
Ingredients In Cosmetic Products That Cancer Patients Should Avoid
Dr. Singhal provides a shortlist of the most commonly used toxic ingredients in cosmetic products that cancer patients should avoid at all costs
Some of the chemicals utilized in make-up are associated with long term risk of destructive diseases like cancer. There is a definite connection between some of the components in cosmetics and breast cancer. Also, short term health consequences, like eczema, dermatitis, skin reddening, and soreness can be created by some of the elements in our make-up. When walking down the skincare aisle, we usually look for products that ensure us of having good and lasting results. Despite what a product’s tagline declares it will do, its property is finally a capacity of its components.
Companies Are Not Obligated To Declare All Toxic Ingredients
Unlike several foods and drugs, individual care products aren’t obliged to declare the harmful byproducts and carcinogens they may include. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) may ban specific ingredients and deceiving labeling, but what meshes in your creams and sprays is dropped to any company’s responsibility.
On the whole, cosmetics and individual care products don’t carry the levels of toxins needed to induce cancer. Bigger concerns are skin provocations and lack of proper cosmetic hygiene.
However, the American Cancer Society says that health risks linked to long-term exposure of toxins can’t be entirely ruled out.
The Law On Coal-Tar Hair Dyes
It’s against the law for a cosmetic to include any component that makes the product dangerous if buyers apply it according to directions on the label or in the common or assumed way. This is true whether or not there is a law that explicitly bans or limits the use of a said ingredient in cosmetics.
The one exemption is for coal-tar hair dyes, which the government treats separately. Under the law, FDA can’t take any action toward a coal-tar hair dye for safety purposes as long as it has a distinct information declaration on the label and directions for a skin test. The warning statement states as follows:
Caution - This product contains ingredients which may cause skin irritation on certain individuals and a preliminary test according to accompanying directions should first be made. This product must not be used for dyeing the eyelashes or eyebrows; to do may cause blindness.
Natural Products Tend To Be Easier On The Skin
When fighting cancer, it’s really astonishing what a swipe of bold red lipstick or a simple sheet mask can do for your physical and mental wellbeing. That said, one thing cancer battlers and survivors should constantly be watchful of during their journey is the use of non-toxic beauty products.
Apart from aspiring to dodge exposure to possibly damaging chemicals throughout cancer treatment, natural products tend to be easier on the skin — which can grow particularly sensitive while enduring cycles of chemotherapy and radiation.
The solution here is to be attentive to toxic components and where your cosmetic products are sourced from as laws vary throughout the world. The European Union has banned 1328 product toxins, whereas the U.S. has outlawed an insignificant 30 of them.
Given cancer battlers and survivors are now in a turbulent, high-risk situation, they should also be mindful of well-known toxic cosmetics ingredients that are associated with cancer, such as polyethylene glycols, triclosan, and diethanolamine or DEA. Hormone and reproductive disrupting toxins, like parabens, BHA, and phthalates, are likewise a top concern for people with estrogen-responsive cancers.
List Of Most Common Dangerous Ingredients
These are the bad ingredients you should know about, and try to avoid their use:
Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT). Most often found in lipstick, eye shadow, some petroleum products.
Diethanolamine (DEA). Found in a variety of face makeup and hair products.
Formaldehyde (formaldehyde releasers: bronopol, DMDM hydantoin, Diazolidinyl urea, imidazolidinyl urea, and quaternium-15). Often found in nail products, eyelash glue, hair gel, hair-smoothing products, baby shampoo, body soap, color cosmetics.
PEGs (polyethylene glycol or ceteareth). Found in a variety of skin-care and makeup products.
Sodium Laureth Sulfate and sodium lauryl sulfate. We can find it in toothpaste, shampoo, and hand soap.
Triclosan. Found in oral products, shaving products, creams, and color cosmetics.
Siloxane (ingredients ending in -siloxane or -methicone). Mostly used in hair products, deodorants.
Synthetic colors. Used in all product types.
Parabens (specifically propyl-, isopropyl-, butyl-, and isobutyl- parabens). Utilized in makeup, moisturizers, shampoos, conditioners, lotions, facial and shower cleansers, shaving products, and scrubs.
Fragrance (perfume, essential oil blend, and aroma.) Found in most personal skin care products.
Phthalates dibutyl phthalate (DBP), dimethyl phthalate (DMP), and diethyl phthalate (DEP). Generally used in nail polish, hair sprays, perfumes, lotions, soaps, shampoos.
What Are Phthalates?
Phthalates are a special group of toxins, deserving their own passus here. Phthalates are a distinct group of substances that help produce more flexible plastics and are utilized in a wide assortment of products, such as toys, vinyl flooring, and wall coating, detergents, lubricating oils, food packaging, pharmaceuticals, blood containers and tubing, and some cosmetic and personal care products. Because phthalates are generally utilized in numerous consumer products, their safety has been greatly studied and analyzed. Phthalates make up a diverse class of materials every with its own, individual spectrum of features. The safety forms of different phthalates are not all the same, with some including unwanted characteristics while others do not. In the equivalent style, it is considered incorrect to view all phthalates as being identical: they certainly are not.
Historically, the phthalates utilized in cosmetic products have been dibutyl phthalate (DBP), used as a plasticizer in products like nail polishes to reduce splitting by making them less fragile; dimethyl phthalate (DMP), utilized in hair sprays to help circumvent stiffness by enabling them to create an elastic film on the hair; and diethyl phthalate (DEP), used as a catalyst and fixative in perfumes. DEP can also work as an alcohol denaturant, presenting alcoholic products inappropriate for oral consumption. DBP and DMP have been suspended in cosmetics and personal care products by companies; and according to The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) scientific study of cosmetic products, directed in 2010, DBP and DMP were only seldom discovered in some products. DEP is the only phthalate still sometimes used in cosmetics, and its use is quite restricted.
In fact, multiple personal care product producers are abandoning its use as an ingredient. Additional phthalates, such as Di(2-Ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), have no records of use in cosmetics and personal care products.