Are These Common Ingredients in Your Health and Beauty Products Safe?
To keep health and beauty products, such as cosmetics, soaps, and lotions, safe for human use and effective, preservatives and other chemicals are added. However, in recent years the safety of some of these ingredients, despite decades of use, has been questioned, especially by companies selling all natural products. Here's a look at three common ingredients called into question and what scientific studies say about their safety. Parbens Parbens, including ethylparaben, propylparaben, and butylparaben, act as a preservative not only in cosmetics, but also in foods. This common preservative added to hundreds of cosmetic products can be absorbed into the body through the skin. There's growing concern that parabens may be linked to cancer because of a 2004 study in the "Journal of Applied Toxicology" that reported finding breast tumors with parabens. However, parabens in the body is not a new discovery, so finding it in tumors does not mean it caused the cancer. Studies