The Effect of Chemical Buildup on the Skin
| by Paul Penders | August 22, 2007
Using just a few skin care products each day can cause potentially dangerous levels of chemical build up if those products aren’t made with natural ingredients.
According to a study conducted in 2006 by Chemical Safe Skincare Research, the average woman uses 12 toiletries each day, which cumulatively contain as many as 175 different chemicals. Since about 60% of the products applied to the skin are absorbed, an average woman will absorb five pounds of chemicals each year, according to the research.
That wouldn’t necessarily pose a problem if those ingredients were organic, as they would then merely interact with the body’s natural processes and be expelled.
The problem arises, however, when many of those ingredients are synthetic. Although most of the 10,500 or so man-made chemicals that are used in skin care products don’t cause harmful side effects, between 2,000 and 3,000 ingredients may cause reactions ranging skin irritations and allergies to hormonal disruptions, birth defects and even cancer.
In fact, most scientists agree that at least 80% of the more than 200 different types of cancer are caused by toxic synthetic chemicals.
Less severe effects of chemical build up include a relatively new and somewhat controversial condition called Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS). This chronic condition, which has also been called toxic injury, chemical injury, 20th Century Syndrome, environmental illness, Sick Building Syndrome, idiopathic environmental intolerance, and toxicant-induced loss of tolerance (TILT), is characterized by symptoms that recur in response to low levels of exposure to certain chemicals. Symptoms include runny nose, itchy eyes, headache, scratchy throat, ear ache, scalp pain, mental confusion or sleepiness, palpitations of the heart, upset stomach, nausea and/or diarrhea, abdominal cramping, aching joints; many sufferers simply feel sick or unwell much of the time.
Although several medical organizations reject MCS as a true disease, clinical studies have shown that its symptoms can be reproduced with repeated exposure to chemicals and once that exposure stops, symptoms of MCS often disappear. The U.S. National Institutes of Health also notes that based upon their genetic makeup, some people may be more prone to MCS than others.
According to a study conducted in 2006 by Chemical Safe Skincare Research, the average woman uses 12 toiletries each day, which cumulatively contain as many as 175 different chemicals. Since about 60% of the products applied to the skin are absorbed, an average woman will absorb five pounds of chemicals each year, according to the research.
That wouldn’t necessarily pose a problem if those ingredients were organic, as they would then merely interact with the body’s natural processes and be expelled.
The problem arises, however, when many of those ingredients are synthetic. Although most of the 10,500 or so man-made chemicals that are used in skin care products don’t cause harmful side effects, between 2,000 and 3,000 ingredients may cause reactions ranging skin irritations and allergies to hormonal disruptions, birth defects and even cancer.
In fact, most scientists agree that at least 80% of the more than 200 different types of cancer are caused by toxic synthetic chemicals.
Less severe effects of chemical build up include a relatively new and somewhat controversial condition called Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS). This chronic condition, which has also been called toxic injury, chemical injury, 20th Century Syndrome, environmental illness, Sick Building Syndrome, idiopathic environmental intolerance, and toxicant-induced loss of tolerance (TILT), is characterized by symptoms that recur in response to low levels of exposure to certain chemicals. Symptoms include runny nose, itchy eyes, headache, scratchy throat, ear ache, scalp pain, mental confusion or sleepiness, palpitations of the heart, upset stomach, nausea and/or diarrhea, abdominal cramping, aching joints; many sufferers simply feel sick or unwell much of the time.
Although several medical organizations reject MCS as a true disease, clinical studies have shown that its symptoms can be reproduced with repeated exposure to chemicals and once that exposure stops, symptoms of MCS often disappear. The U.S. National Institutes of Health also notes that based upon their genetic makeup, some people may be more prone to MCS than others.
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