Drugstores initially were places where we went to get medicine. While we may still get our prescriptions filled there, today’s drugstores also sell food, cosmetics, toys, office supplies, and home goods—and a surprising number of these items are the opposite of medicine. Many contain chemical compounds that can actually make us pretty sick if we’re exposed to them over time.

Here’s a rundown of some of the most toxic drugstore items that you should probably avoid—or at least cut back on—as well as healthier alternatives.

1 ) Tampons and Feminine Care Products

A disturbing array of toxic chemicals have been found in conventional tampons, menstrual pads, wipes, douches, and other feminine hygiene products. These chemicals, which include pesticide residues, dioxin, unknown fragrance chemicals and adhesives, have been linked to cancer, endocrine disruption, allergic rash, and reproductive harm. They raise alarms because vaginal tissue is particularly porous, which means that chemicals put into the vagina are easily and effectively distributed throughout the body, says Women’s Voices for the Earth in its comprehensive report “Chem Fatale.”

Safer Alternative: Skip products marketed as “vaginal cleansers.” The vagina is designed to self-clean; douching and excess washing, in fact, can lead to infections, says WomensHealth.gov. Choose unscented tampons, as well as chlorine-free bleached or unbleached cotton tampons and pads. Reusable, washable menstrual pads are also available, as are washable menstrual cups to collect rather than absorb menstrual flow.

2) Mascara

Mercury—a potent neurotoxicant that can cause kidney damage and potentially disrupt fetal brain development if the woman using it is pregnant—is sometimes used in mascara as a preservative and germ killer.

Stacy Malkan, co-founder of the advocacy group Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, says there is no reason “a known neurotoxin should be allowed” because safer alternatives exist. Unfortunately, there’s no way you would know whether your mascara contains mercury or not, because companies are not required to list it on their product labels.

Safer Alternative: To be safe, search online for “mercury-free mascara” or shop at natural foods stores. Or, try this recipe for making your own mascara.

3) Air Fresheners

Phthalates help disperse the fragrances in air fresheners into the air, where you may inhale them or absorb them through your skin.

Once these chemicals enter the blood stream, they can alter hormone levels or cause symptoms like headache, runny nose and itchy eyes.

The State of California notes that five types of phthalates are “known to cause birth defects or reproductive harm,” reports the Natural Resources Defense Council. Exposure to phthalates in air fresheners has also been associated with increasing the risk of asthma.

Safer Alternative: First and foremost, root out what is making your home smell bad. Then open the windows and let fresh air circulate.

Keep bathroom floors and the base of the toilet clean, use fans to move moist air out of bathrooms so mildew doesn’t develop, and don’t leave old food on kitchen counters or in an uncovered trash can, where it will smell as it decomposes.

To add a pleasant fragrance to your home naturally, simmer cloves, orange peel, and apple cider or pieces of apple on your stove, and enjoy fragrant cut flowers like roses and lilies.

Don’t Miss: Indoor Air Pollution Solutions: 15 Affordable Actions to Help You Breathe Clean Air

4) Lipstick

The post The 10 Most Toxic Items on Drugstore Shelves appeared first on Big Green Purse.

We’ve gotten it out of paint and gasoline because of its links to birth defects and mental retardation. Says Health Canada, “Exposure to lead may have subtle effects on the intellectual development of infants and children. Infants and toddlers are particularly vulnerable to the harmful effects of lead because they are undergoing a period of rapid development; furthermore, their growing bodies absorb lead more easily and excrete lead less efficiently than adults. In addition, infants and young children are more likely to ingest lead because of their natural habit of putting objects into their mouths.

“Once in the body, lead circulates in the blood and either builds up in bone or is eliminated from the body, mostly in urine. Lead can stay in the body for over 30 years following exposure.”

So the message should be: don’t use lead, and especially don’t eat it.

Yet updated research from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has found noticeable amounts of lead in over 400 brands of lipstick, including Revlon, Clinique, L’Oreal, Maybelline, Cover Girl, and Estee Lauder.  FDA says that it is not concerned because lipstick is a “topical” product that is not intended to be “ingested.” In other words, the agency is acting as if lipstick stays on lips.

But if you wear lipstick, you know that’s not true. We lick our lips all day long, which means that we’re eating lipstick all day long, and applying it all day long, too.

Besides, says Mark Mitchell, M.D., MPH, the policy advisor of the Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice and co-chair of the Environmental Health Task Force for the National Medical Association, lead “builds up in the body over time and lead-containing lipstick applied several times a day, every day, can add up to significant exposure levels.”

In January, reports Forbes, an advisory committee to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared there is no safe level of lead for children and stressed the importance of preventing lead exposure for kids and pregnant women. While lipstick is not sold to children, if you’re a mother, aunt, grandmother, or babysitter, you know how hard it can be to keep kids away from make-up, especially lipstick.

To be clear, the cosmetics companies are not intentionally adding lead to their product forumulations. But because lead is so prevalent in air, water, and minerals, it can appear as a trace contaminant in the raw ingredients companies use in manufacturing.

If you want to buy lipstick, here are 11 brands that tested lead-free in 2007. Note that many are made by companies you’ll recognize, like Avon, and are very affordable.

The post Lead-Free Lipstick? Well…duh! appeared first on Big Green Purse.

While there’s no specific link between any one product and breast cancer, scientific evidence is growing that women face some risk of contracting the disease due to their cumulative exposure to the chemicals in cosmetics and personal-care products.

“Is there a direct connection we can make between the use of these products and breast cancer?” asks Dr. Julia Smith, the director of breast cancer screening and prevention at the Lynne Cohen Breast Cancer Preventive Care Program at the NYU Cancer Institute and Bellevue Medical Center, in New York City.  “No. But there are strong scientific suspicions that some of the chemicals found in the environment, including those used in cosmetics and other personal-care items, might increase the risk, especially if there is heavy exposure before the age of twenty-five.”

That’s because these are the years when breast tissue is developing and most susceptible to outside influences. It is possible that multiple exposures to common cosmetics could create a cumulative or “domino effect” that could ultimately result in the disease.

Why aren’t we safe?

Despite these concerns, lipstick, eye liner, nail polish, shampoo, perfume, deodorant and the other concoctions we liberally apply to our faces, lips, eyes, noses, nails, heads, necks, legs, armpits and vaginas are among the least-regulated substances in the marketplace.

It’s true. The makers of cosmetics and personal-care products are not required to meet specific federal standards that guarantee our personal health and safety. The fedral Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires manufacturers to put a warning statement on the front of products that have not been tested that reads, “WARNING — The safety of this product has not been determined.” But not many of them follow the rules.

Cosmetics companies are not held responsible for the environmental consequences their products have once they escape down the drain, either. Only one state, California, requires cosmetics manufacturers to disclose any product ingredient that is on state or federal lists of chemicals that cause cancer or birth defects.

According to the FDA’s Office of Cosmetics and Colors, which oversees the industry, “a cosmetic manufacturer may use almost any raw material as a cosmetic ingredient and market the product without an approval from the FDA.”

That really makes you want to put your lipstick on, doesn’t it?

The cosmetics industry claims to regulate itself through a board called the Cosmetic Ingredient Review panel. But a report titled “Skin Deep” by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a non-profit research institute based in Washington, D.C. showed that 89 percent of 10,500 ingredients used in lipstick, nail polish, hair coloring, soap, and other personal-care products have not been evaluated for safety…89 percent. The new video, “The Story of Cosmetics: The Ugly Truth of Toxins In, Toxins Out,” really drives the point home.

What Can You Do? Three things…

1) Shift your spending to safer, healthier products. Fortunately, you’re not completely at the mercy of the cosmetics companies. Every year, consumers (mostly women) spend $50 billion on cosmetics and personal-care products. Individually, that amounts to between five hundred dollars and fifteen hundred dollars that each of us could shift to beauty products and toiletries that are healthier for us and better for the planet.

How do you know what’s healthier? You can compare what you currently use to safer products listed on  the Skin Deep data base.

And as a general rule of thumb, you can avoid products that contain parabens, phthalates, synthetic fragrances, and triclosan, while choosing plant-based compounds whose names you can actually pronounce!

Remember that the way you spend your money is your first line of defense. If you don’t buy it, you will be far less exposed to it.

2) Cut back the number of products you use by at least three. Most people use an average of 10 personal care products every day, and some of us apply many more. We do it without thinking: soap and shower gel, shaving cream and aftershave, eye cream, face cream, hand cream, body lotion, foundation, blush, bronzer, lip liner, lip gloss, eye liner, mascara, eye brow pencil, deodorant, nail polish… Do you really need soap AND shower gel? Would an “au naturel” look be just as attractive as one that is more glamourous – and more make-up intensive? Try reducing your beauty regimen by at least three products daily and see if anyone notices. I bet you could take a complete beauty breather once or twice a month with it never registering on the “OMG meter.” If you still need convincing, read this article Nena Baker, author of The Body Toxic, wrote on the Huffington Post.

3) Support passage of a strong Safe Chemicals Act. Versions of legislation to protect consumers from dangerous chemicals have been introduced in both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives. The bill would require testing for synthetic chemicals to stay on the market. It would shift the burden for proof of safety to the chemical companies, not consumers. The bill would limit companies’ ability to hide information about toxic chemicals. And it would reduce the public’s exposure to the most dangerous chemicals.

Environmental Defense Fund has launched the “I Am Not a Guinea Pig” campaign to mobilize people like you to urge their member of Congress to support a strong Safe Chemicals Act. You can send your representative and senator a quick e-mail with the click of this button.

There’s no excuse for the threats we face in products we use every day. We’re trading minimal beauty for a beastly outcome. Change can happen, but not unless you act. Do so today.

For more ideas on what you can do, read this month’s Green Mom’s Carnival posts, hosted at OrganicMania by Lynn Miller.

The post Beauty…or the Beast? Depends on the Safe Chemicals Act. appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Toxic chemicals keep turning up

Previously, I reported on dangerous lead levels in lipstick.

Now, according to research done in Canada, two other chemicals used in lipstick and other personal care products pose a significant threat to human health. The chemicals, known as D4 and D5 siloxanes, have been linked to uterine tumors and reproductive damage in various animals. In addition to being added to lipstick, the siloxanes are found in body lotion, hair care products, baby bottle nipples, cookware and home cleaning products. Because the chemicals persist in the environment and resist degrading, health officials worry they pose long-term risk to people and the planet.

As Canada moves forward to assess actions needed to reduce the use of these toxic chemicals under its Chemical Management Plan program,  Environmental Working Group says the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has yet to publish a single study or assessment on D4 and D5 under their parallel program, the High Production Volume (HPV) chemical challenge.

Canada’s findings “underscore the need for real reforms within the EPA’s failed programs to regulate toxins in the U.S.,” said Environmental Working Group VP for Research Jane Houlihan. “Congress and President Obama need to overhaul broken toxics laws, and establish a policy that forces the chemical companies to first prove their products are safe before being used.”

Clearly, a new mindset is needed focusing on preventing hazards like this from occurring. EPA needs to expedite its process on regulating proven toxic chemicals like D4 and D5 siloxanes.

Just as importantly, the Obama Administration needs to adopt a “prevention agenda” to protect human health and the environment from toxic hazards – not just clean up after them.

The post Lipstick Takes a Toxic Turn; Prevention Agenda Needed appeared first on Big Green Purse.

More than half of 33 brand-name lipsticks tested (61 percent) contained detectable levels of lead, with levels ranging from 0.03 to 0.65 parts per million (ppm). None of these lipsticks listed lead, a dangerous neurotoxin that can cause learning disabilities, as an ingredient.

“Lead builds up in the body over time and lead-containing lipstick applied several times a day, every day, can add up to significant exposure levels. The latest studies show there is no safe level of lead exposure,” said Mark Mitchell, M.D., MPH, president, Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice.

According to the tests, which were conducted by an independent laboratory during the month of September, one-third of the tested lipsticks exceeded the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 0.1 ppm limit for lead in candy – a standard established to protect children from directly ingesting lead. Lipstick products, like candy, are directly ingested into the body. Nevertheless, the FDA has not set a limit for lead in lipstick, “which fits with the disturbing absence of FDA regulatory oversight and enforcement capacity for the $50 billion personal care products industry,” said the Campaign.

Fortunately, the tests also identified lead-free lipstick brands: 39 percent of lipsticks tested had no detectable levels of lead. In fact, some less expensive brands such as Revlon Superlustrous Bed of Roses ($7.49) had no detectable lead levels.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to tell from product labeling which brands contain lead and which do not. Review complete test results in the full report, “A Poison Kiss: The Problem of Lead in Lipstick,” posted at www.SafeCosmetics.org. Then Use Your Purse to buy the safest possible brand.

The following lipstick brands had higher lead levels than others tested:

-L’Oreal Colour Riche “True Red” – 0.65 ppm
-L’Oreal Colour Riche “Classic Wine” – 0.58 ppm
-Cover Girl Incredifull Lipcolor “Maximum Red” – 0.56 ppm
-Dior Addict “Positive Red” – 0.21 ppm

The post Get the Lead Out … of Your Lipstick! appeared first on Big Green Purse.