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Shower gels, body washes and bath foams all contain similar ingredients and there are far too many variations amongst the ingredients for us to list all those you may come across, so we'll concentrate here on the ones that are most often included in conventional products.
Two of the most common ingredients are SLS (sodium lauryl sulphate) or SLES (sodium laureth sulphate). These are detergents used in many personal care products, as well as industrial products, to degrease. They are included in body wash products as they are very efficient detergents which foam well, so that the product can be easily distributed in the hair, thereby lifting out dirt and grease.
You only have to search online to find quite alarming reports concerning either of these two ingredients where it is implied that they are responsible for causing everything from cancer and irreversible eye defects in children to baldness. Sources for these reports claim impressive sounding research organisations. But equally impressive sounding research organisations claim that none of these reports are true, and that the so called dangers of SLS/SLES are down to misquotes and incorrectly interpreted research resulting in an 'urban legend'.
To add to the confusion, some 'natural' products list their main detergent ingredient as a plant derived soap (ie corn sugar soap or coconut oil foaming agent or something similar). In fact, this could actually refer to SLS which is a foaming agent which can be derived from coconut or palm kernel oil (although it can also be petroleum derived). Added to this, there is very little information readily available about the plant derived alternatives to SLS/SLES.
The only substantiated health reason we could find to avoid SLS/SLES are that they are potential skin irritants. It is true that SLS/SLES are used in industrial degreasing products as they are such efficient detergents. They are included in personal care items such as body wash products in far lower concentations, so they are less likely to irritate. However if you have a tendency to a dry, flaky or itchy skin it might be worthwhile changing to products containing milder plant derived alternatives to see if that alleviates the problem. This is particularly true of any product such as a bath foam, which would be in contact with the skin for longer periods than a shower gel for example, which is washed off straightaway.
Since SLS/SLES can be derived from petroleum, coconut oil or palm kernel oil, you can never be sure exactly where it comes from, since ingredient listings rarely provide this information. If you could like to avoid petroleum derived ingredients in your personal care products, you would do well to avoid them.
One other reason to avoid SLS/SLES is that they might be derived from palm kernel oil. The farming of palm kernel oil is responsible for deforestation of rainforest in countries like Malaysia and Indonesia as land is cleared for palm oil plantations. The palm oil industry threatens native species and is now considered by scientists as the biggest threat to the orang-utan, which could be extinct in the wild within 12 years if deforestation continues at it's current rate. With 'natural' products labelling is clearer and it is easier to avoid products that use palm oil as the source for their foaming agent. In any case, if you are using body wash products with palm oil based ingredients we would urge you to contact the manufacturer to enquire whether they are using palm oil from sustainable sources.
As with all other commercially available personal care products, we would advise that it's probably best to avoid those containing 'fragrance' as you can never be sure exactly what this is. Some synthetic fragrances contain phthalates. In studies, phthalates have been linked to reductions in semen quality in adult men, premature breast development in young girls and research also suggests that they may interfere with the sexual development of male foetuses. Synthetic musks are also a cause for concern as they have been found to be widespread environmental contaminants, present in lakes, rivers, sediment, soil etc. According to Friends of the Earth synthetic musks also 'bio-accumulate' (ie build up in the body) and although nobody is exactly sure what long term effect this will have on anyone exposed to them, laboratory tests indicate that they are carcinogenic and inhibit a naturally occurring enzyme system that guards cells against toxins.
And of course, other ingredients which crop up time and again are parabens. British researchers have found traces of parabens in tissue taken from women with breast cancer, and although there is no evidence that parabens cause cancer, researchers have asked for the use of parabens in personal care products to be reviewed, as these studies suggest that these chemicals may accumulate within the body after having been applied on the skin. We have discussed parabens elsewhere on Scene Green and would advise people to avoid using any product containing them, particularly in the case of bath foam, which is not rinsed off the skin straightaway.
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