Holidays Here: Bath & Body Works Fails Sniff Test

[Azhia]

A posting from safecosmetics.org...

Hazardous Chemicals in Holiday Cosmetics Stink

The holidays are upon us and the scent of cosmetic gift baskets is in the air--especially at Bath & Body Works. The retailer's holiday Sugar & Spice, Glittery Gumdrop and Twisted Peppermint products contain a lot of "fragrance," a mystery ingredient often made from dozens--even hundreds--of individual chemicals that don't appear on ingredient labels and that may be more naughty than nice for your health.

The Skin Deep cosmetic safety database lists "fragrance" as a cosmetic ingredient to avoid whenever possible. Because of a giant loophole in federal law, companies are not required to list on product labels any of the chemicals in a "fragrance" mixture. Fragrances can contain neurotoxins, allergens and phthalates, chemicals that have been linked to reproductive problems, testicular cancer and early puberty in girls--which is, in turn, a risk factor for breast cancer.

"Fragrance", as your nose knows, is a major ingredient in these Bath & Body Works holiday wares. But it's not the only ingredient we're checking twice: Sodium Laureth Sulfate, a main ingredient in the Sugar & Spice 3-in-1 Body Wash, is often contaminated with a hidden carcinogen called 1,4-Dioxane; and the Glittery Gumdrop lotion contains at least two parabens, chemicals that act like estrogen in the body and have been found in breast cancer tumors.

If young girls are on your holiday shopping list, steer clear of Bath & Body Works' American Girl line, marketed to tweens. The American Girl Truly Me Glistening Shower and Bath Wash warns on its back label: "Excessive use or prolonged exposure may cause irritation to skin and urinary tract." No surprise, then, that this bath wash and American Girl Shimmer roll-on fragrance contain skin irritants, organ sensitizers and suspected carcinogens. Exposure to these chemicals at critical windows of development, like pre-puberty, can be especially harmful.

The 1,500+ Bath & Body Works stores nationwide will be bustling this season with holiday shoppers buying fragrant lotion or soaps.

[Bellydancefanatic]

Woa! I'm going to have to forward this to my mother and grandmother. They shop for fragance items like crazy. Thanks!!

[steffib]

I am not quite sure that I understand why this specific brand is so terrible - fragrance is in pretty much everything, including many dishsoaps, parabens are in many cosmetics, and I am rather glad about that, since e.g. moisturizer would not keep very long w/o them, even when stored in the fridge, and sodium laurel sulfate isn't exeactly uncommon, either, as anybody who obsessively reads their cosmetics labels will know. (I used to make my own cosmetics for a while and read labels when buying shampoo and such.)

I am afraid that this warning sounds a bit falsely alarmist against one specific chain.

I LOVE bath and body works, and I KNOW it's full of chemical crap.....

*sigh*

[Azhia]

It's information to take or leave...(I think I erroneously posted it in this topic, sorry! Shoulda gone into non-belly dance related).

I normally do not go into stores like this and I run through the perfume sections if I am ever in a mall...headache city!

THAT being said...I am a big LUSH fan. Their Glitterbugs are the best body glitter on the market, imo! I just personally prefer to stay away from things that degrease mechanic shop floors and have been linked to breast cancer. I do not prefer the chemical versions of these fragrances, either, and enjoy the real thing. It's good to smell good during (and AFTER) a particularly sweaty show, so choose the products that work for you. ;0)

But don't even ask me about fluoride and MSG. You'll get a book on that. Actually, there is a book on them: "Slow Poisoning of America." It's banned in the U.S.

thanks for posting it! appreciated.....
there's so MUCH crap on the market.

There's a LUSH in Boulder, CO. I like it too. I like their glitterbugs. They are so fun.

I don't allow chemicals on my lawn or watering, I live in a semi-arid climate.
My neighbors however, their lawn is like the tropics. You would think we lived in Cuba or Florida looking at their lawns. They water it like crazy.
We have NO water in Colorado -
They spray chemicals on their lawn once a week.

You know how I tell people to find my house, I have the brown lawn.

We are going to xeriscape eventually. It's super expensive, and we don't have them $ right now. But we *really* want to do it.

My dad's coming out in May and said he'll help me do the front yard.
My front yard is small, but my back yard is HUGE. I'm on a pie shaped lot.

[steffib]

Ah, I should have added the long version: I am all for living healthy, which is why I read labels fairly obsessively - and everybody should (actually, scratch that - nobody should have to read labels in an ideal world).

But, it seems most beneficial not to make strawman arguments, this is too important a problem. The above warning about very common and relatively benign chemicals seems counterproductive when it comes to reducing unnecessary and unhealthy chemicals, of which there are WAY too many around, absolutely!

And, on a constructive note: The lavender all-purpose soap at Whole Foods is what we use, I like it better than Dr. Bronner. Also, Trader Joe's lavender hand soap has no anti-bacterials, which is winner in my book. But, especially paraben is an ingredient that has its place.

[ssipes]

My 2 cents:

1. This is one of those classic pseudoscientific articles that reads like a news article but no sources are cited and no author is given. And for those factoids that may be true, what makes anyone think that B&BW is any different from most other commercial brands? Also, no quantitative data are provided, and remember the mantra of toxicology is "the dose makes the poision."

2. Natural doesn't mean safe. Lavender in bath products has been implicated in causing early puberty as well as breast development in young boys, due to the estrogen-like compounds in it. There are hundreds of suspected or known carcinogens produced by plants and other organisms. Possibly the strongest carcinogens known are certain aflatoxins produced by fungi.

I'm not saying don't try to avoid bad stuff, but it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to shun "artificial chemicals" and embrace natural products without considering any other criteria.

[SummerSahar]

Originally Posted by ssipes

remember the mantra of toxicology is "the dose makes the poision."

Paracelsus, the father of modern toxicology, said this. We learned all about him in my studies in college of toxicology.

Just to clarify (and I'm in NO way defending this article. I've gotten myself into futile arguments with people who will believe what they want to believe), the above statement, "the does makes the poison," is not ENTIRELY true. When it comes to cancer-causing agents, there is NO threshold or safe dose. I repeat: The dose DOES NOT make the poison when it comes to carcinogenic chemicals. Theoreticlly, one molecule of a carcinogenic chemical is enough to set the cancer wheels in motion, eventually ending up in a tumor. Luckily, we have all kinds of effective biological systems in place to keep DNA damage from turning into a tumor, and it's a crapshoot whether or not the MILLIONS of chemicals each day we are exposed to lead to cancer. But there is no "safe dose" of any carcinogenic chemical. The same is also true of reproductive or developmental toxicants (such as ethanol, lupin, lead, etc).

As far as I know, neither parabens nor SLS is on Prop 65 (I don't have access to my work databases at the moment or else I could very easily check both prop 65 and mutagenic assay results for these chemicals to shed some light on this). But I bet, as is often the case with these kinds of "newsbreaks," I'd find just as much evidence reporting they DON'T cause cancer as I'd find they might cause cancer. Trash the government and CDC and EPA and OSHA and ACGIH all you want, claim they don't know diddly squat when it comes to protecting their consumers, claim their evidence is all a conspiracy theory and tainted with money and selling out, but I'd say they've done a pretty damn good job of recognizing and reporting a heavy number of chemicals (and DONE something about regulating their uses) in our favor, and they continue to investigate and review a fair number each year. If SLS and parabens haven't made their more severe lists by now, I'd put my energy towards worrying about those that have.