Consumer Products

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This site is updated regularly.

Personal Care Products
Food & Drink
Cleaning Products
Clothing, Shoes & Textiles
Plastics
Furniture

Related PEI Environmental Health Co-op projects: Healthy Homes for Babies | Healthy Environments (PEI Early Learning Centres) | Healthy Environments for Kids (Family Resource Centres) | Public Education

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Personal Care Products

Not sure what this topic is about? Watch this short cartoon-video about toxins in personal care products: The Story of Cosmetics with Annie Leonard.

NEWS

Hundreds of Lipsticks Contaminated with Lead, Reports New FDA Study (Wall Street Journal, 8 Feb 2012)
Chemicals in your cosmetics (CBC Maritime Noon, 31 Jan 2012)
Report reveals toxic ingredients in Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo (Forbes, 1 Nov 2011)
What you need to know about toxics in your cosmetic products (David Suzuki Foundation)
Failing the sniff test: Chemicals in fragranced personal care products remain a mystery (David Suzuki Foundation, June 2011)
"Scent-free space is a health issue" by Joanne Ings, Executive Director of the PEI Lung Association (Letter to the Editor, The Guardian, 8 Oct 2010) [PDF, 0.04 Mb]

BACKGROUND

Cosmetics

List of Prohibited and Restricted Cosmetic Ingredients (Health Canada)

Common Hazardous Chemicals found in Cosemetics & Personal Care Products (Guide to Less Toxic Products, Environmental Health Association of NS)
Not So Sexy - Hidden Chemicals in Perfumes and Cologne (Environmental Working Group, May 2010) [full report as PDF, 1.48Mb]
EWG's Cosmetic Database (Environmental Working Group) [check ratings for ingredients AND products]

Soaps

Wash those hands - but avoid Triclosan (Environmental Working Group)

Sunscreen

EWG's 2011 Sunscreen Guide (Environmental Working Group)

Fragrances

3,163 ingredients hide behind the word "fragrance" (Enviroblog, 2 Feb 2010)
Scent-Free Policy for the workplace (Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety)
A section on parabens and phthalates can be found in Environmental Exposure: the CancerSmart Guide to Breast Cancer Prevention [PDF 0.7 Mb] (Toxic Free Canada)

Baby Care

Baby Care: Starting out right (Guide to Less Toxic Products, Environmental Health Association of NS)

INGREDIENTS TO AVOID

[print out the PEIEHC Wallet Card with a convenient list of these ingredients and simple advice for choosing healthier products! (PDF)]

Fragrances - irritants, asthma triggers, affect CNS, suspected carcinogens
Phthalates - sometimes listed as DPB, DEP; often included in “fragrance” - toxicants
ingredients that contain paraben or ingredients that end with paraben - toxicants
ingredients that include "xynol" "cetereath" "oleth" or end with "eth" - toxicants
ingredients that include "toluene" - neurotoxin, carcinogenic, developmental toxin
PEGs [polyethylene glycol] - e.g. PEG-7; higher # = bit less problematic, e.g. PEG-200
Methylchloroisothiazolinone/methylisothiaolinone - immune system/skin toxicant
DMDM hydantoin - immune system/skin toxicant
Cocamide MEA - may contain nitrosamines=CNS/immune toxicant, potential carcinogen
Lead - never listed but found in some lipsticks, face paints etc., especially reds
Ammonium/Sodium Lauryl Sulfate - irritant
Ammonium/Sodium Laureth Sulfate - irritant, contaminated with carcinogens
Colourings/dyes - unnecessary and harmful, especially Yellow #10
Silica, talc and other fine particulate ingredients

Ingredients to avoid for babies and young children (Skin Deep)

Programmed to be Fat? Controversial new science is raising suspicion that chemicals in the environment may be programming us to be fat. (The Nature of Things CBC, 12 Jan 2012)

Lousy Labels - Marketplace takes a closer look at some of the green labelling on personal care products. We discover that many of those natural and organic labels are often misleading or exaggerating their claims. (Marketplace CBC, 18 Mar 2011)

ALTERNATIVES

use any product as little as possible
avoid fragrances if possible (=avoids many other nasty ingredients also)
choose products where fragrance is further down on the list
choose products with the shortest ingredient lists
don’t believe the advertisements blindly!
- A pink ribbon logo on a deodorant does not mean that the product is healthy for you!
- Products always advertise their least harmful ingredient - check “active ingredients”

At a glance - PEIEHC brochures on... [PDFs]

Fragrances
Choosing personal care products
PEIEHC Wallet Card (Ingredients to avoid and simple advice on choosing healthier products)

Some useful websites

TOP

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Food & Drink

NEWS

Flame retardant found in butter (WebMD, 7 Dec 2010)
Hormones in milk: Court rules rBGH-free milk *is* better than the kind produced with artificial hormones. Now what? (6 Oct 2010)
The American Academy Of Environmental Medicine Calls For Immediate Moratorium On Genetically Modified Foods (19 May 2009)

BACKGROUND

Drinking water:

EWG's drinking water quality analysis (Environmental Working Group)
EWG's water filter buying guide (Environmental Working Group)
The toxic foot print of bottled water [PDF, 1.37 Mb] (Toxic Free Canada)
Getting off the bottle [PDF, 1.49 Mb] (Toxic Free Canada)
Is your bottled water worth it? (Environmental Working Group)
Bottled Water Quality Investigation: 10 Major Brands, 38 Pollutants (Environmental Working Group)
EWG's guide to safe drinking water [PDF, 0.07 Mb] (Environmental Working Group)

For more info on BPA, click here!

Watch "The Story of Bottled Water" (link to video)

Toxic chemicals in food:

2011 Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce (Environmental Working Group)

The Dirty Dozen and the Clean 15 (Environmental Working Group) [PDF, 0.1Mb]
Healthy Home Tips - Eat organic & fresh foods (Environmental Working Group)
Pots, Pans and Plastics: a shopper's guide to food safety (Environmental Working Group)
A section on heterocyclic amines (produced when cooking meat and fish, p. 11) can be found in Environmental Exposure: the CancerSmart Guide to Breast Cancer Prevention [PDF 0.7 Mb] (Toxic Free Canada)
Brain Food: Fish Women Should Avoid (Environmental Working Group)

TOP

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Cleaning Products

News

Can Scented Products Make You Sick? (CBS News, 29 Dec 2011)
Dirty Secrets About Toxic Chemicals Lurking in Common Cleaners (GreenBiz.com, 9 Dec 2011)

Home Cleaning Supplies

Choosing greener cleaning supplies (Environmental Working Group)
A Guide to Less Toxic Household Cleaners (Guide to Less Toxic Products, Environmental Health Association of NS)
Database of toxins in cleaning products around the home (indoors and outdoors) (Household Products Database)
School Cleaners Test Results (Environmental Working Group) *many of these products are also purchased to clean private homes!*

Commercial Cleaning Supplies

Cleaning Supplied Can Contaminate Classroom Air (Environmental Working Group)
- School Cleaners Test Results (Environmental Working Group)
New research links school air quality to school cleaning supplies [PDF 0.5 Mb] (Environmental Working Group)
- EWG's air pollution tests of school cleaning supplies detected hundreds of contaminants, including six that cause asthma, 11 tied to cancer in people, and many more that have never been evaluated for safety.
Cleaners and Toxins Guide [PDF 1.1 Mb] (Toxic Free Canada)