Eye Opener: Environmental Working Group
The item I chose to research was my foundation, MAC Select SPF 15 Foundation. I have probably been purchasing variations of this foundations for 6 years. According to the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep cosmetic safety database my product scored a 6 out of 10 on the hazard scale. Therefore it is a moderate hazard. The active ingredient in this product is Octinoxate. This product is linked to causing cancer, developmental/reproductive hazards, or allergies. It is scary to think that something that I have putting on may face for years could cause so many different things. It definitely makes me think twice before using it. But to be perfectly honest, I pay a lot for my make up and do not intend to throw it away. It is scary what they can get away with into cosmetics though. Because these items are approved and are supposedly safe, but obviously not if one of the side effects of using it are cancer. I do not think I will ever understand how that works.
I honestly am not too fond of this site. I didn't find it to be well organized. It was also confusing. It was not very clear of where to go next or what to do within the site. I just starting clicking on random things to try to figure out what kind of information was available. Also I wonder how valid the information is, because in the lower section it says "one or more animals." Perhaps this was only for my product, but still, they are saying that if 100 mice were given this foundation and 1 developed cancer, then it must be linked to cancer? I don't know about that, I would be interested in seeing more of there research and findings.
I also agree that this website was very shocking and alarming. I do not understand how these items can be approved as safe. I did not dig really deep on this site but its interesting to hear that if 1% of mice develop cancer then the ingredient is linked to cancer. It makes me think twice.
ReplyDeleteSomehow in the beginning I easily missed the search engine they provided in the center of the page and used the one on the top where the header is. That one stood out to me more. I agree they are a bit unorganized.
ReplyDeleteMy product had lots of the same ingredients and had similar effects. Kind of scary to think about.
ReplyDeleteIt's difficult to change habits, especially since you are a long-term user of your product, and would just be a waste to throw it away with how much it costs. It's quite alarming to find out what hazards our every day products produce, but it's also something that we don't think about very often for it to change our outlook (at least for me)
ReplyDeleteI think these companies can get away with it because there are no immediate or short term effects; long term effects are subjective. That's the issue with so many things out there, things are getting approved because the long term effects are not in close enough proximity, therefore there's nothing objective enough to prove.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you on the website. I dont know how factual it is so I didn't really know what to say about it. In fact, I couldnt find any sited sources that verified the content. It also didn't even have my make up. I did think it was good in the fact that it made me think about what I've been putting on my face.
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