Personal Care Products - Video

This first video was definitely eye-opening. I remember believing that anything that was on the shelves for us to buy had gone through some sort of government testing to make sure we were safe. Years later I learned that this is not the case. What was most surprising was leaning that companies don't necessarily have to disclose all the ingredients they use in their products when it comes to fragrance. This is troubling because people may be purchasing products thinking they are relatively safe, however, there is actually a whole list of ingredients that we as consumers are not even aware of. 

In addition, I think that many consumers (including myself) often do not understand some of the ingredients listed on the labeling of our products. Unless we take the time to look up what these ingredients are, we will continue to buy products that are harming our health and our environment.

The second video was shocking, to say the least, I was not expecting Ken Cook to be referring to babies in the womb when he began to talk about all the chemicals found in the sample of those 10 Americans. I had no idea of the number of environmental contaminants that babies are exposed to before they even come into the world. This explains why many children are born with birth defects or deficiencies despite the fact that their mothers maintained a healthy diet throughout pregnancy and were healthy themselves or had no family history of these health conditions. 

Ken Cook described the Toxic Substances Control Act as a law that "protects polluters and companies" because it does not require any safety studies to be done before a new chemical is allowed into the market. I always thought that the placenta filtered out chemicals to protect the fetus, however, the fact that this is not true is concerning, and it makes me wonder whether this has always been the case or whether humans have created such toxic chemicals that the placenta can no longer protect the fetus from these substances.