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Welcome to our collection of articles relating to organics, wellness, nutrion, toxic free living, alternative parenting and ethical business. Explore our main Miessence Organic Home Page here . Alternatively explore our Organic Health Blog here.
The Case Against Sodium Laureth Sulfate
Narelle Chenery, Director of Research and Development for ONE
Group and formulator of the world's first certified organic skin
and body care products, Miessence, and member of the Australian
Society of Cosmetic Chemists looks at the much maligned and often
misunderstood chemical, sodium laureth sulfate.
Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES) is a chemical used universally in
cosmetics, personal care and skin care products. Whilst
SLES is often claimed to be natural because it can be derived from
coconut oil, it is the manufacturing process that bears looking
into.
Ethoxylation is a process that uses ethylene oxide, a known carcinogen,
to manufacture 'milder' surfactants like SLES. Ethoxylated
surfactants may be contaminated with 1,4- Dioxane (dioxane), an
un-wanted by product of the manufacturing process.
Ethoxylated ingredients, including detergents, foaming agents,
emulsifiers and certain solvents are identifiable by the phrase "PEG," "Polyethylene," "Polyethylene
glycol," "Polyoxyethylene," "-eth-," or "-oxynol-."
Exposure to large amounts of dioxane can cause kidney and liver
damage. Accidental worker exposure to large amounts of dioxane
has resulted in several deaths. Symptoms associated with these
industrial deaths suggest dioxane causes adverse nervous system
effects. Laboratory studies show that exposure to dioxane over
a lifetime causes cancer in animals. Dioxane may likewise cause
cancer in humans. 1
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the presence
of dioxane, even as a trace contaminant is cause for concern and
the Commission continues to monitor its use in consumer products. 2 Skin absorption studies demonstrated that dioxane readily penetrates
animal and human skin during use of contaminated shampoos and other
personal care products, although it is uncertain how much is available
for absorption and how much evaporates instead of penetrating the
skin. It also caused systemic cancer in a skin painting study. 3
The Australian government have assessed the main risk for the
general public for dioxane exposure is from consumer products containing
dioxane as an impurity. A so-called 'worst case scenario'
for daily intake is 7 micrograms, based on an assumed level of
30ppm dioxane in end-use products. This is claimed to be
1000 times 'safer' than levels where no adverse effects were observed
in animal studies. 4 However, overseas studies have shown
dioxane levels to be much higher than the assumed 'low' level of
30ppm. Dioxane has been found in household products at the
following levels: shampoos (50-300ppm), dishwashing liquid (3-65ppm),
baby lotion (11ppm), hair lotions (47-108ppm), bath foam (22-41ppm)
and other cosmetic products (6-160ppm). 5
Two studies reported an increase in liver cancer of 50% and 64%
in workers employed in workplaces where dioxane is present. The
same authors also carried out a workplace exposure survey and reported
that the majority of dioxane levels measured in workplaces were
less than 3ppm! Although they claim the data was insufficient
to speculate on the workplace exposure levels in the liver cancer
studies.
Scorecard, the internet's most popular resource for information
about pollution problems and toxic chemicals, lists dioxane as
a recognised carcinogen and suspected cardiovascular
or blood toxicant , gastrointestinal
or liver toxicant , immunotoxicant , kidney
toxicant , neurotoxicant , respiratory
toxicant and skin
or sense organ toxicant . 6
However 'safe' dioxane is purported to be, it is still not something
I would like to see in any amount in my personal care products. Some
manufacturers may claim that the alarming facts previously mentioned
are irrelevant because they are based on the product in it's pure
100% concentrated form and not relevant for the diluted form found
in personal care products. But think about it... no matter
how you look at avocado oil, whether in it's concentrated form,
or diluted form, it still ain't toxic!
My philosophy is if it is possible to create a product without the
use of any harmful, or even potentially harmful, chemicals then
do it! And it is certainly possible: the Miessence
certified organic product range is living proof that skincare can be made
with only beneficial 100% natural and organic ingredients.
- 1,4-Dioxane Factsheet. U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics,
February 1995. http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/chemfact/dioxa-sd.txt
- "1,4-Dioxane, CAS No. 123-91-1: Reasonably
Anticipated to be a Human Carcinogen." Tenth Report
on Carcinogens. U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service,
National Toxicology Program, December 2002. http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/roc/tenth/profiles/s080diox.pdf
- Prohibited Ingredients and Related Safety Issues. U.S.
Food and Drug Administration, Center for Food Safety and Applied
Nutrition, Office of Cosmetics Fact Sheet, March 30, 2000.
http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/cos-210.html
- Full Public Report on 1,4-Dioxane, Priority Existing Chemical
No.7. National Industrial Chemicals Notifications and Assessment
Scheme, 2003. http://www.nicnas.gov.au/publications/CAR/PEC/PEC7/PEC7index.htm
- Fact Sheet 1,4-Dioxane - Emerging Contaminant
of Concern http://www.ocwd.com/_assets/_pdfs/1,4-Dioxane_Fact_Sheet.pdf
- Scorecard Summary o 1,4-Dioxane http://www.scorecard.org/chemical-profiles/summary.tcl?edf_substance_id=123-91-1
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