Are You Letting Your Daughter Be Exposed to Secret Chemicals?

10:31 AM Posted by jo

Do you know that fragrance products targeting teenage girls contain many secret chemicals not listed on the labels? According to a new analysis, these hidden chemicals can be found in fragrance products from Hannah Montana's Secret Celebrity and Britney Spear's Curious to Calvin Klein's Eternity and Abercrombie & Fitch Fierce.

These secret chemicals not listed on the labels contain chemicals that can disrupt hormones or trigger allergic reactions. Exposing growing and not fully developed girls to fragrances that disrupt the hormones is a bad idea. Fortunately, essential oils can be used to make quick and easy perfumes and other body care products that not only smell wonderfully, but also possess powerful healing properties.

My post Make Your Own Perfume explains how to blend essential oils to get the most out of the oils. My other post, Perfume blends will share some recipes so that you can get started on making your own. Many of these chemicals can also be found in other beauty products.

The President's Cancer Panel came out with a recent report that pointed out the largely unregulated toxic and understudied chemicals used by millions of people daily. The Cancer Panel recommends that pregnant women and couples planning to become pregnant avoid chemicals known to disrupt the hormones due to cancer concerns. The same hormone disruptors that may play role in cancer were also found in the fragrances analyzed.

The Environmental Working Group, EWG, recently performed a study where they found the synthetic musk chemicals Tonalide and Galaxolide in the umbilical cord blood of a newborn baby. The same musk chemicals were found in almost all the analyzed fragrances. 17 products were tested and 12 of the products also contained diethyl phathalte also known as DEP. DEP is also linked to behavioral problems and sperm damage.

From EWG's website:

"For this study, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a national coalition of health and environmental groups, commissioned tests of 17 fragranced products at an independent laboratory. Campaign partner Environmental Working Group assessed data from the tests and the product labels. The analysis reveals that the 17 products contained, on average:

Fourteen secret chemicals not listed on labels due to a loophole in federal law that allows companies to claim fragrances as trade secrets. American Eagle Seventy Seven contained 24 hidden chemicals, the highest number of any product in the study.

Ten sensitizing chemicals associated with allergic reactions such as asthma, wheezing, headaches and contact dermatitis. Giorgio Armani Acqua Di Gio contained 19 different sensitizing chemicals, more than any other product in the study

Four hormone-disrupting chemicals linked to a range of health effects including sperm damage, thyroid disruption and cancer. Halle by Halle Berry, Quicksilver and Jennifer Lopez J. Lo Glow each contained seven different chemicals with the potential to disrupt the hormone system."