Your Baby's Bath: Gentle! Pure! Formaldehyde?

Our friends in the Wackosphere will remind us that formaldehyde is naturally produced in the human body. So is poop, but we don't bath in it or inject it into ourselves now do we?

California Baby products are available at Target. I'm looking at a bottle of their Body Wash which reads, "No formaldehyde or formaldehyde donors, non solvent and non genotoxic. No parabens, sodium benzoate, benzoic acid, benzyl alcohol or phenoxyethanol."  www.californiababy.com. Trader Joe's also sells non-toxic personal care products at good prices.  Kim

Campaign for Safe Cosmetics Press Advisory

Contacts: Stacy Malkan, 202-321-6963; stacy@safecosmetics.org
Jovana Ruzicic, 202-667-6982; jovana@ewg.org
Stephenie Hendrix, 415-258-9151; stephdh@earthlink.net

New Product Tests: Kids’ Bath Products Contaminated with Formaldehyde, 1,4 Dioxane. Chemicals Not Listed on Labels Due to Weak Regulatory Standards

Washington D.C., March 12, 2009 -- Despite marketing claims like “gentle” and “pure,” dozens of popular children’s bath products are contaminated with the cancer-causing chemicals formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane, according to new product tests released today by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. The chemicals were not listed on product labels. 

This is the first report to document the widespread presence of formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane in bath products for children. Many products tested for the study contained both chemicals, including top-selling baby shampoos, bubble baths and baby lotions.

At a press conference on Thursday, brand names will be revealed, and medical professionals and researchers will discuss the significance of these first-time findings. Health groups will discuss how lack of regulation in the United States has created a situation where parents cannot be assured that body care products are safe, despite marketing claims that promise product purity. They will also discuss how product safety standards in the U.S. have fallen far behind other countries such as Europe and Japan.
 
WHAT:  Press conference with full test results and products on display
 
WHEN:  Thursday March 12, 9:30 a.m.
 
WHERE:  National Press Club, Murrow Room, Washington DC
 
WHO:
Jane Houlihan, vice president for research at Environmental Working Group, creator of the Skin Deep database (www.cosmeticdatabase.org)

Devra Lee Davis, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology and director of the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute

Robyn Gilden, RN, MS, Program Manager, University of Maryland School of Nursing Environmental Health Education Center

Stacy Malkan, co-founder, Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, author of “Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry”

# # #
 
Founding members of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics include: Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow, Breast Cancer Fund, Clean Water Fund, Commonweal, Environmental Working Group, Friends of the Earth, Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition, National Black Environmental Justice Network, National Environmental Trust and Women's Voices for the Earth. www.SafeCosmetics.org

Comments

[lyne appel downing]

I would like to share emails with your team.
Lyne

[Stagmom]

I'm afraid pretty much everything we use is a bunch of chemicals these days. I got a new face cream (ROC brand) for Christmas (from my Mom!) - it had aluminum in it - and it wasn't cheap. I chucked it. So I'm aluminum free, but wrinkled - damn those autism worry lines!

Even natural products aren't always so natural. It's depressing and makes managing the toxic load difficult, even with the best of intentions.

K

[laurie marx]

Its really a sad world we live when companies put cancer causing chemicals in baby products. What is wrong with people, you can bet that all the people that work for these companies do not use these products on their children. We have used j&j on our grandson since he was born ,he will be two in november. This makes me very angry something needs to be done. Laurie in texas

[Diane]

Erika - thanks for posting that site - its a nice comprehensive easy to use site to check products - some I've been using are on the bad list.

[Theresa]

Our childbirth instructor gave us some advice that we used when our daughter was an infant, which is "don't put anything on your newborn that you wouldn't eat." We washed her with water, and for stickier situations and cradle cap, olive oil. Now we use California Baby, like Petra. We don't use any products in our house with chemical fragrances, and I can hardly believe how strong the smell is in the "baby" aisle when I go to the grocery store...

[RJ]

1,4 dioxane

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/mar/14/business/fi-natural14

Everything you may want to know (and not know) about formaldehyde (be sure to see section 5.1.4 for a list a a few foods examined).

http://www.inchem.org/documents/ehc/ehc/ehc89.htm

[Erika]

I check everything we use on cosmeticdatabase.com
I have given that website to a lot of people.
(Thanks to them for the great work they do!)

Coincidentally, i just finished reading "Not just a pretty face". Very good book.

I used to do the PR for a cosmetic company and i now feel so guilty! It's sad to admit how ignorant i was...

That was pre-autism, but now, thanks to my beautiful vaccine injured baby, i am a lot smarter and well informed than that...

Funny how tragedy can teach you good things...

[Gatogorra]

If you extracted someone's own stomach acid and injected it into their veins, you'd kill them. If you put it on their teeth or skin, it would strip enamel and epidermis. Natural schmatural.

[Petra]

TG I switched to California Baby products (WFM carries the CB products too, by the way) several years ago. Never regretted it. Every other brand name 'gentle stuff' has been a disaster with my boys, so I don't mind paying a little extra for stuff that I KNOW won't harm them.

(don't get me started on J&J's marketing to babies campaigns..let's just say I know a little too much when it comes to J&J's policies and manufacturing practices. And you all do realize that most of the J&J skin products contain either oats or gluten derivatives; amongst other 'less than desirable' ingredients??)

[Jeanne]

Will someone be covering the press conference?