What's in your personal care products? Have you ever counted how many cosmetics or personal care products you use in a typical day? For most people it's somewhere around ten personal care products used each day. These include shampoo, toothpaste, soap, deodorant, shaving cream, hair conditioner, lip balm, sunscreen, body lotion and sun screen to name just a portion of them.

And what about children's personal care products? On any given day you might rub, spray or pour on your children some combination of sun screen, diaper cream, shampoo, lotion, and maybe even insect repellent onto their skin. Most people use these products daily without a second thought as to the the long list of ingredients on the side panel labels believing that the government surely must be policing the safety of these listed ingredients. But, if you assumed this you would be wrong. The government does not require health studies, or premarket testing for personal care products before they can be sold. Here is a direct quote from the FDA website concerning this statement:

Neither cosmetic products nor cosmetic ingredients, other than color additives, need to be reviewed or approved by FDA before they are sold to the public. FDA cannot require companies to do safety testing of their cosmetics before marketing.