Almost 13,000 chemicals are used in cosmetics, and only about 10 percent have been evaluated for safety. Although the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has the authority to regulate harmful ingredients in cosmetics and personal care products, they don’t often exercise it.
Further, cosmetics can come on the market without any type of approval necessary. Only after a product is deemed to be harmful, adulterated, or misbranded can the FDA take regulatory action.
The average US woman uses 12 personal care products and/or cosmetics a day, containing 168 different chemicals, according to the Environmental Working Group (EWG). While most men use fewer products, they’re still exposed to about 85 such chemicals daily, while teens, who use an average of 17 personal care products a day, are exposed to even more.
Clearly, such chemical exposures are not insignificant, especially when they occur virtually daily for a lifetime. When EWG tested teens to find out which chemicals in personal care products were found in their bodies, 16 different hormone-altering chemicals, including parabens and phthalates, were detected.
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