Thanks for checking out waytogogreen dot org for news on going green. Products for personal care are used on a frequent if not daily basis.  Here are some great tips on greener personal care.

You wouldn’t think so, but the things you put on your body have an incredible effect on your overall health and even the environment.  From lotions, to sunscreens, to makeup, they all can contain relatively small amounts of different chemicals that absorb into your skin.  Constant use causes these chemicals to build up in our bodies.

If you are into going green to the extreme, you can live by the rule that if you wouldn’t eat it, you shouldn’t put it on your skin.  What’s not so extreme is ruling out any products that have ingredients on the label you can’t read.  Ingredients such as natural oils, vitamins, minerals, and herbs are safe.

The worst culprits of personal care products are:

- Antiperspirants with aluminum chlorohydrate (any aluminum can build up in the body and have negative effects on the brain)
- Deodorants with triclosan (triclosan has been shown to cause liver damage)
- Sunscreens/sunblocks with a number of dangerous ingredients (including diethanolamine, benzophenone, homosalate, octyl-methoxycinnamate, and parabens)
- Soaps with various ingredients (such as petroleum-derived synthetic fragrances, mineral oil, and/or artificial colors)
- Shampoos with formaldehyde (sometimes labeled as quaternium-15)
- Toothpastes with sweeteners and fluoride (fluoride even in small amounts is toxic)

Knowing these things may help in your quest of going green.  Products for personal care is definitely something to look into further.

Tags: Antiperspirants, Deodorants, Going Green Products, Shampoos, Soaps, Sunscreens/sunblocks, Toothpastes

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 at 4:10 am and is filed under green personal products. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.