Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Sunscreen - The Latest Evil

I am tired of being duped. 

I am tired of relying on government agencies to actually do a job that they are seemingly either not motivated to perform or simply unable to perform.  They are the emergency exit row people, seriously FDA, if you are not willing to open to the emergency door for Americans than get out of that seat!  How many times will the FDA and the EPA fail us before we say, enough is enough!  Is it that they are corrupt?  This is what I believe.  I believe that Big Oil, Big Dairy, Big Agra, Big Anything have Big Pockets.  Bigger pockets than you or the dairy farmer down the road, or the farmer's market.  And with those big pockets, from my point of view, they are making some government workers very rich.  The are consolidated, aggregated, and evidently heartless.  Money is more important than your future or the future of their own children.  The latest offender?  Consumer Packaged Goods manufacturers who make sunscreen. 

Check out this link and look up your sunscreen that you just spent $10-$20 on for the summer.  We all knew that the SPF claims that they make are bogus (so why are they allowed to make them?)  But what you didn't know was that some of the chemicals and ingredients they put in them are unsafe, cancer causing and hormone disrupting.  Seriously, I am pregnant, I don't need anymore hormone disruptions.  Also, the powders and sprays, seriously damaging if you inhale them.  I think that if a product is "convenient" and it goes in, on or around your body you have to ask, what is the trade off? 

So check it out.  The Environmental Working Group has ACTUALLY tested hundreds of products for a couple of chemicals and how good they are at protecting against UVA and UVB rays.  I am not sure what their source of income is, they have a 'donate $5' section to help offset costs, why don't our tax dollars pay for testing of these products?  The one I use currently on the kiddos, is Banana Boat Free and Clear Baby, it is on the low end of the scale of toxicity, yay me, but knowing that there are better products out there make me want to go find them.  Also, the Neutragena Liquid Face Sunscreen is crazy bad for me - that was $12 for 2 oz.  Enough to really irritate a person.  So I am going on a sunscreen hunt today, I will update you on what I find and where I find it.  Here is the list of "good" sunscreens.

So if the FDA won't protect us, let's tell as many people as possible.  Sounds like the Enviornmental Working Group is my new best friend. They have an email that they send out on various subjects (food safety, environmental concerns, other products).  I signed up.  Hopefully I don't get bombarded hourly, although at this rate, that is what I would expect. 

2 comments:

Saint Louis Family Robinson said...

Oh sister, I hear ya!

Thank God the small bottle that I bought for $17 a couple of weeks ago made the good list! Seesh.

I noticed botchiness on Josie's face last summer and noticed it again after being in the FL sun in April... and discussed it with a few other China Moms and an Asian woman and they all said the same thing: It was a reaction to the chemicals in the sunscreen I was using. blah blah blah... I went to Natural Way on Olive and the woman there promised me that Caribbean Solution SolGuard (natural and biodegradable) was our best option. I've since seen it at WholeFoods for $25. But it's only SPF 25.

Val Daubert said...

Thanks for the tip. Mine were all BAD! Going shopping tomorrow. I don't need more blotches and hormone fluctuations/imbalances either.