Transitioning to nontoxic products was an important move for me…
While in the process of looking for alternative treatment options for my oldest son who is diagnosed with Autism, I came across articles talking about removing toxins from the body. At the time of that search, I was coming across the terms “clean beauty”, “safer beauty”, “nontoxic beauty” etc. This sparked curiosity because I always assumed that our personal care items were safe because they’re on the market. Girl was I wrong!!! There’s basically no regulation when it comes to our personal care items!
Even worse, The FDA (in the US) doesn’t even require safety testing of the ingredients in personal care products before they are used. The federal law relating to the safety of personal care products has remained mostly unchanged since 1938…1938 y’all!
Personal care products include makeup, fragrance, lotion, toothpaste, shampoo, deodorant, conditioner, etc. Can you stop and think for a second how many of these products you are using daily? And your kids are using? And you’re using on your baby??? It’s crazy!!!
“It’s probably not that serious. We’ve been using these things forever and we’re fine.”
I beg to differ sweetheart. It is that serious. These chemicals are linked to cancer, are hormone disrupters, cause reproductive harm, etc. Formaldehyde, lead, asbestos, and other cancer-causing chemicals should not be in our personal care products! With the amount of money those industries are making, you’d think our health would be a priority.
Some countries are better regulated, but the U.S. lacks regulation still. I wasn’t aware of these facts before, hence why I continued to pour money into these companies. Since becoming aware, I decided to take action and exercise my right as a consumer: I buy only clean and safe products; I take part in signing petitions that will force the FDA to take action; I learn about where political candidates stand on these issues before voting; I share (and will continue to share more of) whatever nuggets I’ve learned about this issue with my audience; and as a content creator, I collaborate with brands who care about our health and create safer products. I chose to give up nontoxic products and make our health a priority.
Awareness and knowledge are important!
It’s not just important for the products we use but in our daily lives. Blindly making decisions won’t work anymore. Our health depends on it. I now ask more questions when I’m talking to my kids’ doctors about important topics and debates; consume other “news” than just what our news channels are deciding to share; read labels and remember the top ingredients to avoid; speak up when I see false headlines circulating on social media; ask questions about my son’s curriculum at school and express areas of concern or things that don’t align with my beliefs; demand better pay and benefits from potential employers…I do things differently now that I’m aware. How aware are you? What do you plan to do differently now that you’re more aware?
2 resources to help you in starting your journey:
https://www.ewg.org/key-issues
http://www.safecosmetics.org/get-the-facts/
Until next time,
