Beauty's Most Controversial Chemicals

Furthermore, some have weighed the evidence and believe there’s no reason to worry. In an exhaustive review, Drs. Raphael Witorsch and John Thomas concluded, “although select constituents [of personal care products] exhibit interactions with the endocrine system in the laboratory, the evidence linking personal care products to endocrine disruptive effects in humans is for the most part lacking.” They cite contradicting animal studies, weak connections between human exposure and toxic effects, and point out flaws in studies on people, all of which leave room for doubt.

So what does this all mean?

“There is no harm if people choose to pick products that are phthalate free,” says Dr. Teitelbaum. The same goes for BPA, parabens, and any other chemicals of concern.

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Since these chemicals aren’t safety tested in advance, we simply don’t know yet what problems they might cause.

What we do know is that many beauty companies have found ways around using these potentially harmful compounds in their products, and limiting exposure of the main offenders to infants, children and pregnant women can only be a good thing