Eye Opener: Environmental Working Group

This was very interesting.
I had to go through almost all of the things I have in my house to find something that this list had information for.

Finally I grabbed a hair product that I occasionally use  from Bumble Bumble called Defrizz. It scored a zero.

The ingredients are  Cyclomethicone, Dimethiconol. I am going to some searching to see WHAT these are. my quick first look found that some part of it can be used for gastroenterology issues. So, I guess it is used in the product Gas X.  A HUGE weight off my shoulders... nothing worse then when your hair gets the vapors!   It looks like Dimethiconol may be an emulsifier.

I'm a little confused about the produce information. The panel to the right has NO bars or scores where it talks about the ratings.  However, then towards the bottom of the section it lists...

Other HIGH concerns: Persistence and bioaccumulation
Other MODERATE concerns: Organ system toxicity (non-reproductive)
Other LOW concerns: Ecotoxicology, Data gaps

I'm not so excited about the Bioaccumulation piece.  Perhaps more information will give me some clues.
So, I guess I don't feel totally confident with this rating. I feel like i need more information before I can really feel GOOD about the zero. To be fair, they say they have limited information.


I did also looked at my Nature's Gate Autumn Breeze Deodorant Stick that I recently purchased.
This got a rating of 4 which is moderate.  This product also has limited information available.
I see that the first ingredient is propylene glycol. This ingredient isn't really thrilling to me. This website

http://antiagingchoices.com/harmful_ingredients/propylene_glycol.htm
And I'm not sure how much validity this cite has yet.

and this page on the site we are using for this assignment.
have concerning things to say about absorption and skin irritation.
The print on the deodorant ingredients list is REALLY small and I couldn't read it at the store... I may look for another deodorant.

I'm curious... did anyone find a GOOD rated deodorant??

I threw my Paul Mitchell Shampoo One in there... a kind I used to use. That as a 5 and also "limited data". That seems to be a common thing. I wonder if that have complete data on anything or if it is a weasel word they use to cover themselves legally.

It is really frustrating finding things that are safe. It is also frustrating that many of the products I use are not in their data base at all.   I don't know how the process works to get products in the database... an agreement with the company? Popularity? For the ones that are not in there that I use, many of them are smaller companies that I feel more confident of than many of the big ones. I have looked at the ingredients in them when I got them and did some comparison of "bad chemicals" lists and they were OK.

Very interesting to examine what we are putting on our skin and what it does as it enters our bodies.