categories, with some falling in more than one category. Using the Skin Deep® database, EWG


evaluated the potential toxicity of each product: • Fewer than one-fourth of the products scored 1 or 2 – green for low potential hazard.


• Seventy percent scored from 3 to 6 – yellow for moderate potential hazard.


• Eight percent scored from 7 to 10 – red for high potential hazard.


Among the best-scoring product cat- egories were bar soaps, body oils, moistur- izers, and body washes and cleansers. These categories had the most green- scoring products, fewest red-scoring prod- ucts and lowest average scores. The worst- scoring product categories were hair relax- ers, with an average score of 8.1, and hair color and bleaching products, with an average score of 7.9.


PRODUCT CATEGORIES OF CONCERN


Hair relaxers and dyes The 15 hair relaxers evaluated scored


an average of 8.1 in Skin Deep®, solidly in the scoring range of products to be avoided. Thirteen of these products claimed to be “no-lye” treatments, suppos- edly safer for use because they exclude the caustic ingredient sodium hydroxide. But the analysis showed that these treat- ments still score highly for potential harm since they contain other hazardous ingre-


dients such as parabens and formalde- hyde-releasing preservatives, as discussed below. In fact, even calcium hydroxide, the chemical that replaces lye in the “no- lye” relaxers, is a caustic irritant. EWG also evaluated 12 hair dyes


marketed to Black women. This category was the only one for which every product analyzed scored poorly, placing these products in the high hazard range. Three ingredients of particular concern were found in all hair dyes analyzed: undis- closed “fragrance” mixtures; resorcinol, a hormone disruptor and sensitizing chem- ical that can trigger allergic reactions; and p-phenylenediamine, a sensitizing chem- ical for which there is also limited evi- dence of carcinogenicity.


Concealers and foundations None of the concealers and founda- tions EWG reviewed scored in the low hazard range, and the average score of these two product categories were in the moderate hazard range. According to their analysis, most of these products contain hormone-disrupting parabens and retinyl palmitate, a form of vitamin A that has been linked to skin cancer when exposed to sunlight.


POTENTIALLY HARMFUL INGREDIENTS


Many of the products evaluated con- tain hormone-disrupting chemicals such as parabens, ingredients linked to skin cancer such as retinyl palmitate, and in-


gredients that increase the risk of skin al- lergies such as formaldehyde-releasing preservatives.


Parabens The analysis frequently found para- bens, a group of widely used preservatives that have been linked to hormone disrup- tion. Six types of parabens were found: methylparaben, ethylparaben, propylpara- ben, butylparaben, isopropylparaben and isobutylparaben. The most commonly found were propylparaben and methyl- paraben, each in about one-tenth of the products evaluated. Some products con- tained more than one paraben. Butyl-, isobutyl-, propyl- and isopro-


pyl- parabens, known as long-chain para- bens, are more strongly linked to hormone disruption than the shorter-chained methyl- and ethyl- parabens. Exposure to these chemicals has been associated with diminished fertility,lowered thyroid hor- mone levels and other reproductive prob- lems.


Concealers and foundations most commonly contained the long-chained propylparaben and butylparaben. Almost three-fourths of the concealers evaluated contained propylparaben and more than one-fourth contained butylparaben. Of the 54 foundations analyzed, almost half contained propylparaben and more than 40 percent contained butylparaben.


Retinyl palmitate EWG'sanalysis found retinyl palmitate in a number of products. Government tests show that this antioxidant ingredient can


Robinhood Integrative Health Bruce Lantelme, MD


Weston “Wiggy” Saunders, MD Bose Ravenel, MD


Elizabeth Bozeman, MD Haley Neal, MD


Maureen Lamont, ANP-C • Kelly Carpenter, NP-C • Jenny Addison FNP-C 336.768.3335


• Bioidenti cal Hormone Replacement Therapy • Adrenal & Thyroid problems • Breast Health • Perimenopause / Menopause


• Low Testosterone • Nutriti onal Medicine • Epigeneti cs • Consultati ve Pediatrics


www.RobinhoodIntegrativeHealth.com MARCH 2017


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