A few weeks ago, I was away at a conference while my younger son back at home was viewing the “puberty” video at school. You know, the one you need to give permission for your kid to watch.
My son is 11 years old and in the 5th grade. He’s highly inquisitive (kind of like his 😉 mama), and asked me a gazillion questions before he even saw the video. He’s a pretty smart kid, and he knows what’s going on.
One of the things they covered in the video is the importance of hygiene because when you hit puberty, your hormones are going crazy, you start to get some body odor, maybe a little bit of acne. All this fun stuff.
What my son came home with after the big day was a hygiene item. Old Spice® Swagger-scented body wash.
I mean really, what young man doesn’t want swagger?
The corporation that makes this product is a consumer product goliath, and they know that people don’t buy products, they buy results. So they’ve positioned this body wash as something that can give you swagger. It’s really quite brilliant, incredibly effective and not at all limited to this one company.
But here’s the other key point you need to know. This product sample is nothing more than advertising for the company that makes it. In this case, Proctor & Gamble, who also makes Febreeze® air freshener, Tide® laundry detergent, Head & Shoulders® shampoo, Cascade® dishwasher detergent, Pantene® hair care, and many, many more.
P&G knows that kids are highly impressionable and that advertising to them makes for loyal customers for years to come. Allowing your kid to use this product is an investment in Proctor & Gamble’s bottom line!
Do you remember years ago when the tobacco industry was in the spotlight? The first published link between smoking and lung cancer was in the British Medical Journal in 1954. It wasn’t until 10 years later that the US Surgeon General acknowledged the link. And in 1987, the year that Congress prohibited smoking on some domestic airline flights, The RJ Reynolds tobacco company debuted the Joe Camel cartoon character in their advertising, which hooked millions of kids on Camel tobacco products.
Genius, right?!
It wasn’t until more than 20 years later in 2009, that enforceable regulations around marketing tobacco products to youth were enacted by our government.[i]
These restrictions haven’t translated (yet) to personal care products with harmful ingredients, but they need to because there’s a lot of harmful chemicals in everyday products that we’re exposing our kids to every.single.day.
I’m super passionate about this, which you probably already know about me, and what I say is this:
It’s all about the ingredients. Everything else is just marketing.
So I’m taking this opportunity to share a few concerning ingredients in Old Spice® Swagger-scented body wash:
- Fragrance
Listen up … if there’s only one thing you remember from what I share with you, it’s to avoid the “F” word. Fragrance is considered a trade secret in this country, and companies do not need to tell you what’s in it. It’s exempt from labeling laws because companies don’t want anyone stealing their signature scent. They can get away with hiding literally hundreds of ingredients in this single word![ii]
What we do know based on testing of products that contain fragrance, is that there are allergens, irritants and endocrine disrupting chemicals in these products. The biggest one that has been found 70% of the time is a category of chemicals called phthalates.[iii] Not to bog you down with lots of technical details, but phthalates are extenders that help a scent to linger longer, but that comes at a cost. Phthalates are hormone disruptors that you won’t see on the label. They’re known to disrupt male hormones, and are linked to male reproductive birth defects and lowered sperm counts.[iv] Let’s save the swimmers, your boys don’t need anything that will impair their fertility in future years. I’m an infertility warrior, and believe me, it’s no fun.
- Methylisothiazolinone (MI) and Methylchloroisothiazolinone (MCI)
These chemically similar ingredients have been on my radar for quite some time, as they’re often used in naturally branded products. But sadly, these chemicals are far from safe. There’s strong evidence that MI and MCI are toxic to skin and are widely known contact allergens. In fact, in 2013, the Contact Dermatology Association named MI the Contact Allergen of the Year.[v]
These chemicals have also been linked to wildlife toxicity.[vi]
Wait, wildlife toxicity?
Yes! Think about it … what happens to the soaps and cleansers that we wash our bodies with? Where do they go?
They get rinsed down the drain and end up in our wastewater treatment facilities. These facilities are good at removing bacteria from the water, but not so much the harmful chemicals. So they end up in our water supply and affecting wildlife from run off. Not good!
- Cocamidopropyl Betaine
Cocamidopropyl betaine is a surfactant that’s associated with irritation and allergic contact dermatitis, which are reactions that could be due to the ingredient itself or to impurities present in it.
One of the impurities linked to cocamidopropyl betaine is a suspected carcinogen, and is one of the chemicals requires the Prop 65 warning in the state of California. It’s also suspected to be an environmental toxin.[vii]
So just don’t do it!
If your kid comes home with something like this body wash, just pitch it in the trash! And if you think people need to know this information, share this blog. Your help is needed to get this information out there! Print this out and send it to the middle school health teachers. Our children deserve better!
Do you want to learn more about ingredients, but aren’t sure where to begin? No worries! I’ve got your back! Download my free guide: The Nontoxic Mama’s Ultimate Guide to Decoding Product Labels, Without Being Greenwashed or Spending Hours Scouring the Internet!
[i] https://www.lung.org/our-initiatives/tobacco/reports-resources/sotc/tobacco-timeline.html
[ii] http://www.safecosmetics.org/get-the-facts/chemicals-of-concern/fragrance/
[iii] https://www.fda.gov/cosmetics/cosmetic-ingredients/phthalates#health
[iv] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/16/health/male-sperm-count-problem.html
[v] https://www.mdedge.com/emergencymedicine/article/57917/dermatology/methylisothiazolinone-named-contact-allergen-year
[vi] https://www.ewg.org/skindeep/ingredient/703935/METHYLISOTHIAZOLINONE/
[vii] https://www.ewg.org/skindeep/ingredient/701520/COCAMIDOPROPYL_BETAINE/