Assignment 2: Toxic Personal Care

Thus far the hardest concept for me to wrap my head around in Belz’s text is that in order to be considered an affluent society the average annual income has to be $7,500. I cannot even begin to conceive how a person could survive on that. Then I looked at this assignment, went to my bathroom cupboard and looked at all the personal care products lining the walls. Products that, for the most part I don’t actually use, though at the same time they are products that I cannot seem to throw away.

            Prior to this moment, I had never really considered how wasteful that shelf was, and how pointless most of the things on it are to begin with. Let alone consider what sort of toxins were in those products, and would be left behind once I finally decide to throw them away.

            The one product I do use regularly is my Dr. Bronner’s Lavender Magic Soap. It just happens to be certified fair trade, comes in a 100% PCR bottle, and is also Oregon Tilth certified Organic. Dr. Bronner’s has an unsurprising score of 2 on the Skin Deep hazard scale. While it does have a 76% data gap it seems unlikely that a vast variety of organic oils and extracts are going to be found toxic. There are several ingredients that have organ system toxicity concerns, but there is also a large data gap that goes along with it.

            After reading through all the concerns, and noting that almost everything mention would require a high dose, which I imagine would be difficult to achieve when shampooing my hair.

            Citric Acid is the most hazardous ingredient on the list, and while it does have cosmetic use restrictions in Canada, they do not feel it is an environmental toxin. The FDA find it safe to eat in moderate amounts, while I do not plan on eating my shampoo, it is good to know that it will not kill me if I do.

            So until I discover a product that is less hazardous than Dr. Bronner, I plan on continuing to use it. As for the other products gathering dust on my shelf, I hope I can find a good home for them, or at the very least, a good way to recycle them.