Scientist Links Chemical Cocktails to Male Infertility and Birth Defects

Professor Richard Sharpe of the Medical Research Council highlighted in a report commissioned by CHEM Trust published last week that chemicals in consumer products may contribute to human male reproductive disorders that manifest at birth (cryptorchidism – undescended testes, hypospadias –where the opening of the urethra is abnormally positioned somewhere along the underside of the penis, between the base and just below the tip), or in young adulthood (impaired semen quality or testicular germ cell tumours). Such disorders are collectively referred to as Testicular Dysgenesis Syndrome, a phrase coined by Professor Niels E Skakkebaek MD.

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Schoolgirl Suffers Severe Allergic Reaction to L’Oreal Hair Dye

Today the Daily Mail reported a story about Carla Harris, a 15 year old schoolgirl who suffered a potent allergic reaction to L’Oreal Recital hair dye, causing her head to swell up to twice its normal size, leaving the teenager in agony for several days. You can see an image of the damage caused on the Daily Mail website.

Despite conducting a patch test prior to using the product, Carla still had a severe reaction after using the L’Oreal hair dye and was admitted into hospital and treated with antihistamines and steroids.

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Common Fragrance Ingredient is a Potent Allergen

A thesis presented at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden suggests that linalool, a common fragrance ingredient in personal care products and household products, instigates allergic skin reactions in considerably more people than was previously thought to be the case.

Linalool is a colourless fragrant terpene found in various plants e.g. lavender, rosewood. It is also synthetically manufactured to cut costs and used in household and hygiene products as a fragrance chemical. The concentrations used in cosmetics are fairly low but in aromatherapy products, natural products and in homemade soaps and fragrances, higher Read more

Nanoparticles in Cosmetics May Harm Environment

Using aquatic microbes as their “canary-in-a-cage,” scientists from Ohio today reported that nanoparticles now being added to cosmetics, sunscreens, and hundreds of other personal care products may be harmful to the environment.

Their report was part of symposia that included almost two dozen papers at the 237th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society where scientists grappled to understand the environmental and human health effects of nanotechnology. Hundreds of products utilizing these microscopic particles — 1/5,000th the diameter of a human hair — already are on the Read more

Shampoo Boosts Drug-resistant Bacteria

Scientists at Birmingham and Warwick universities have warned that fabric softeners, disinfectants, shampoos and other household products are spreading drug-resistant bacteria around Britain. Once these products are released into sewers and rivers they instigate the proliferation of drug-resistant microbes, increasing the likelihood that certain medicines will not be able to combat dangerous diseases.

The research suggests that the problem of drug resistance is not simply due to antibiotics being over-prescribed or poor hygiene standards in hospitals, although the emergence of deadly superbugs such as MRSA are not linked to the use of disinfectants.
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Cocktail of Cosmetic and Pharmaceutical Chemicals Pollute Oceans

Research conducted by Tobias Porsbring of the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, has demonstrated that chemicals assumed to be non-toxic in isolation can pose an environmental threat when in combination with other chemicals. When European and other authorities assess the environmental risks of chemicals they often look at them individually but they do not work alone in the environment. As it states on the University of Gothenburg website, “Chemicals, drugs and personal-care products that accompany wastewater often end up in the oceans, where they form a “cocktail” of chemicals. This “cocktail-effect” may be more harmful than the individual chemicals alone.”

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Personal Care Products and Human Medications in US Waterways

Researchers at Baylor University, working in conjunction with the United States Environmental Protection Agency, have detected residues of pharmaceutical drugs and personal care products in fish caught near wastewater treatment plants serving five major U.S. cities.

Findings from this nationwide study of human medicines in fish tissue, published in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, have prompted the Environmental Protection Agency to expand similar ongoing research to over 150 different locations.
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Campaign for Safe Cosmetics: Carcinogens in Children’s Bath Products

A report called “No More Toxic Tub” released today by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has revealed that, far from being safe and gentle, dozens of best-selling children’s bath products are contaminated with the cancer-causing chemicals formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane. 

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics commissioned an independent laboratory to test 48 products for 1,4-dioxane and formaldehyde. Findings included:
  
17 out of 28 (61 percent) products tested contained formaldehyde and 1,4- Read more

Cosmetic Products May be Over-preserved

Researchers, led by Michael Dyrgaard Lundov from Gentofte University Hospital, Denmark, in a study published in the journal Contact Dermatitis, have suggested that concentrations of preservatives may be too high in some cosmetic products. For example, the preservative Kathon CG was found in concentrations of up to 15 parts per million (ppm) even though this preservative is a potent sensitiser and concentrations as low as 2.5 ppm have elicited allergic reactions in sensitised individuals.

Preservatives are added to cosmetic products with a high water content to minimise product spoilage and the proliferation of undesirable
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Toxic Beauty in New Zealand Sunday Star Times

The New Zealand Sunday Star Times ran a feature today about the toxic synthetic chemicals used in cosmetic products. The article features part of an interview I did with Karen Tay, a journalist for the newspaper.

A snippet of the article is below and you can click on the link at the bottom to read the full article.

Is your skincare harming you? Sunday Star Times. New Zealand. Sunday 1st March, 2009.

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