You have soap in your bathroom that you put on your hands everyday. This soap is full of chemicals that get absorbed into your skin everyday.
We will be talking about hand soap and will look at the chemicals in them.
Hand soaps can have chemicals that may be harmful to you. There may be alternative products available that are more safe.
EWG.org is the website we will use to look at how harmful these products are. This website will give these products a rating.
Does hand soap have harmful ingredients?
Let’s take a look at a common hand soap, Softsoap Antibacterial Hand Soap, Crisp Clean.
It comes with a rating of 5 on a 1-10 scale. This could be what you are putting on your hands everyday.
Why is it a 5? What are the health concerns and ingredients in this product?
The ingredient fragrance has the worst rating, an 8.
The word “fragrance” or “parfum” on the product label represents an undisclosed mixture of various scent chemicals and ingredients used as fragrance dispersants such as diethyl phthalate. Fragrance mixes have been associated with allergies, dermatitis, respiratory distress and potential effects on the reproductive system.
Fragrances are synthetic smells. They may smell good but they are not.
If you have heard of the word endocrine disruptors, then fragrances fall into that category.
OTHER CONCERNS Endocrine disruption (low_moderate), Non-reproductive organ system toxicity (low_moderate), Ecotoxicology (low), and Irritation (skin, eyes, or lungs) (low_moderate)
Endocrine disruptors interfere with the body’s hormones which can cause many issues.
Issues such as reproductive issues, organ damage, and cancer.
Another ingredient with a high rating is Methylisothiazolinone.
Methylisothiazolinone is a widely-used preservative; has been associated with allergic reactions. Lab studies on the brain cells of mammals also suggest that methylisothiazolinone may be neurotoxic.
https://www.ewg.org/skindeep/ingredients/703935-METHYLISOTHIAZOLINONE/
Methylisothiazolinone has a high allergy and immunotoxicity ingredient concern.
Benzalkonium chloride, cetrimonium chloride, and METHYLCHLOROISOTHIAZOLINONE all have ratings at 6 and have moderate ingredient concerns for allergies and immunotoxicity.
The rest of the ingredients have a rating of 5 or lower.
Action steps to avoid harmful ingredients in hand soap.
There are better hand soaps to choose from.
They will use better ingredients that are a lot less harmful for you than other soaps.
I will show you a couple of different hand soaps with better ingredients.
Seventh Generation has an unscented hand soap with a rating of 1 on EWG.
You want to stay away with scents as mush as you can because most are artificial and are endocrine disrupters.
This can cause a lot of problems especially when you can realize how many different endocrine disrupters that you get into your body everyday.
The result on your body is a cumulative toxicity effect. Anything you get into your body that is harmful, your body has to use extra energy to take care of it instead of using that energy for proper body maintenance.
Although scents that are specifically natural essential oils are generally okay. The hard part is making sure the scent in a product is only essential oils and not a petroleum chemical scent.
Another good hand soap is Ecos free and clear hand soap. It has a rating of 1 out of 10 at EWG which is really good.
Both of these soaps use mainly plant based ingredients. All of the ingredients in both have a 1 rating except for one ingredient in the seventh generation hand soap which is a 2.
Conclusion
Some hand soaps have a lot of chemicals that could be harmful.
This harm comes from absorbing them into your skin.
How much do we absorb into our skin? Well it could be a good amount.
A study published in the American Journal of Public Health looked into the skin’s absorption rates of chemicals found in drinking water. It showed that the skin absorbed an average of 64% of total contaminant dosage.1 Other studies found the face to be several times more permeable than broad body surfaces and an absorption rate of 100% for underarms and genitalia.2 And another peer-reviewed study showed 100% absorption for fragrance ingredients.3
https://www.downtoearth.org/articles/health-tips/667/your-skin-it-absorbs
The good news is that there are alternative products available that don’t use harmful chemicals.