Environmental Working Group has created two apps that every person interested in limiting their exposure to cancer-causing chemicals should download on their phone for easy access. The apps are free.
1. Dirty Dozen (EWG Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce)
This app lists the 12 'dirty dozen' (produce with very high levels of pesticides).
It also lists the 'clean 15' (produce with low levels of pesticides).
When I go shopping for fruits and vegetables, if I can't afford to buy organic produce, I purchase fruits & veggies from the 'clean' list.
2. Skin Deep (EGW's Cosmetic Database)
I have been using this app for the past week. It's very easy to use. You scan the bar code of a lotion, shampoo, makeup, etc. and it will give you a rating. 0 to 2 is safe. If you scan your product and it doesn't come up, try typing the product in. (Once you scan something and it doesn't come up, EWG gets notified and they will add it to their database.)
Lastly, avoid all parabens. They are found in preservatives for food and cosmetics. Parabens have been banned in the European Union and Japan. There is a bill before congress to get parabens banned by the Food & Drug Administration, but as is the case more often than not with our do-nothing congress, it may take some time to get them banned.
How dangerous are Parabens?
I have copied & pasted the following information from the Breast Cancer Fund:
Parabens
CATEGORY: Endocrine disruptor
FOUND IN: Preservatives for food, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics
THE GIST: Parabens are used to prevent the growth of yeasts, molds, and bacteria in cosmetics products. Parabens appear in some deodorants and antiperspirants, in addition to personal care products that contain significant amounts of water, such as shampoos, conditioners, lotions, and facial and shower cleansers and scrubs. They’re also widely used as preservatives in food and pharmaceutical products. These estrogen mimickers are found in nearly all urine samples from U.S. adults of a variety of ethnic, socioeconomic and geographic backgrounds.
State of the Evidence on Parabens
Parabens are a group of compounds widely used as antimicrobial preservatives in food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics products, including underarm deodorants. Parabens are absorbed through intact skin and from the gastrointestinal tract (Soni, 2005).
Check personal care product labels and avoid any products with parabens or any word ending in "-paraben."
Evidence in Breast Tumors
Measurable concentrations of six different parabens have been identified in biopsy samples from breast tumors (Darbre, 2004). The particular parabens were found in relative concentrations that closely parallel their use in the synthesis of cosmetic products (Rastogi, 1995). Parabens have also been found in almost all urine samples examined from a demographically diverse sample of U.S. adults through the NHANES study. Adolescents and adult females had higher levels of methylparaben and propylparaben in their urine than did males of similar ages (Calafat, 2010). Higher levels of n-propylparaben were found in the axilla quadrant of the breast (the area nearest the underarm) (Barr, 2011). This is the region in which the highest proportion of breast tumors are found, although paraben concentration in the tissue samples was not related to location of breast tumors in individual women.
Parabens are estrogen mimickers (agonists), with the potency of the response being related to the chemical structure (Darbre, 2008). Parabens can bind to the cellular estrogen receptor (Routledge, 1998). They also increase the expression of many genes that are usually regulated by the natural estrogen estradioland cause human breast tumor cells (MCF-7 cells) to grow andproliferate in vitro (Byford, 2002)
We can't avoid all cancer-causing compounds, but we can limit our exposure to them. There are many products that do not contain parabens, and to the companies who make products with consumers and their safety in mind, thank you.
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