If you managed to get BPA out of your bottles, time to start working on your shampoo…
March 17, 2009
If it’s not one thing, it’s another. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics released a study on baby shampoos. It turns out that several major baby product companies use both formaldehyde and 1,4 dioxane to make their shampoos. The EPA classifies formaldehyde as a “probable human carcinogen” and 1,4 dioxane as a “group B2 probable human carcinogen” (I have no idea what the “group B2″ stands for). Either way, not only have we been feeding our kids carcinogens in bottles (BPA) but we’ve also been bathing them in it. Great.
This article at Babble lists the products that tested positive for either chemical. When I went down through the list, I discovered that we currently have in our house, or have recently used in the past the following cancer-causing shampoos on our kids:
- Aveeno Baby Soothing Relief Creamy Wash
- Equate Tearless Baby Wash
- Huggies Naturally Refreshing Cucumber & Green Tea Baby Wash
- Johnson’s Baby Shampoo
- Johnson’s Moisture Care Baby Wash
- Johnson’s Oatmeal Baby Wash – Vanilla (currently have a huge bottle of this at home…)
- Huggies Soft Skin – Shea Butter
There are a few Johnson’s and Huggies products that are not on this list, such as the Johnson’s Cucumber & Melon baby wash. Does that mean that this one is ok? The Huggies version of this product is on the list, why isn’t the Johnson’s version. Is it “safe” or did it not get tested in the study?
The Babble article also includes a link to SuperEco which has a list of “safe” baby shampoos. Of course, there is only one in that list that is sold within a 50 mile radius of me… I’m pretty sure I could find Burt’s Bees organic shampoo if I looked around a bit. At $9.00 a bottle, that’s a lot more than we currently pay for shampoo for anyone in our family. Why is it that the safe, healthy stuff always has to cost more? And why do these companies that we try to trust with our kid’s safety keep adding crap to their products that is so obviously unhealthy for everyone?
Please read this – “science” reported in the news is not always what it seems . .
http://stats.org/stories/2009/baby_bath_cancer_mar13_09.html
Thanks for the link Deb – you are right, “science” by activist groups isn’t always reliable. I guess my concern is that our government assured us last year that the amount of BPA in plastics was safe, and it turns out they were wrong. What happens if/when it turns out the small amount of unsafe chemicals in shampoo is actually too much? As more information becomes available, opinions about this stuff changes. I would like to think that after the CSC’s report, the EPA or some other governmental agency would at least invest some time and money into conducting more thorough research…
Interesting, thanks for the post.
I use the Johnson’s baby shampoo for my child. My mom used it on me. It’s an oldie.
I also used bottles that were NOT BPA free for my daughter last year.
In the future I will certainly do things differently.