9 Little Known Toxic Ingredients that Could Affect Your Pregnancy (and what to do to avoid them)

I blame the pregnancy message boards.  At the outset of my first pregnancy, I was blissfully oblivious to the potential hazards of shampoo.   Then, the posting was clicked: “Shampoo?“, then, the link followed: “Pregnancy Alert: Shampoo Ingredient Could Damage Developing Brain Cells“.  It should have carried a warning: “Danger!  Can of worms about to be opened“!  Because what unfolded was a long lesson in the vile substances in personal care products that could, key word: could, have the potential of harm to a developing baby.

Photo credit: d:space, Flickr.

If you think about it, our skin is our largest organ, so concern about hazards during pregnancy should not stop with what we simply ingest.  We do, like it or not, absorb many additional things through our skin, intentionally or no.  Here’s the main thing to take away from the link above: shampoo often contains an ingredient called methylisothiazolinone, a substance that acts as an antimicrobial agent, to give the shampoo a long shelf life.  Here’s the thing, though: methylisothiazolinone is a neurotoxic chemical.  It really shouldn’t be used in shampoo at all.  But it shows up in far more than just shampoo.  The Household Products Database has it listed as an ingredient in a wide variety of products: house paint, shampoo, conditioner, hand soap, hair color…….See the list here.

In addition to the Household Products Database, coming to the rescue to help us sort through the maze of ingredients on our personal care products is the Cosmetics Database, who warn: “Major gaps in public health laws allow cosmetics companies to use almost any ingredient they choose in everything from sunscreen and mascara to deodorant and baby shampoo, with no restrictions and no requirement for safety testing. To help you navigate your store’s aisles, Environmental Working Group researchers have scoured thousands of ingredient labels to bring you our top recommendations for what not to buy — products with worrisome or downright dangerous ingredients that don’t belong in your shopping cart or on your skin”.

They do a commendable job of rating personal care products based on the safety of their ingredients.  And it’s clearly not just methylisothiazolinone that is of concern here.  The database also singles out Placenta, Lead, Fragrance, Animal Parts, Hydroquinone Skin Lightener, Nanoparticles, Phthalates, and Petroleum By-products as the ingredients causing the highest concern.  Yes, these products really are in the personal care products we use every day without question.

But no despair necessary:  being pregnant does not condemn one to a 9 month avoidance of personal care products.  My picks for a low-chemical personal care routine, having already done the work of hashing through the Cosmetic Database’s findings and trying a wide range of the green-lighted products:

Shampoo:  Burt’s Bees – widely available; does a good job with far fewer ingredients of concern.

Conditioner:  Aubrey Organics – for my fine, dry, wavy hair, the Island Naturals conditioner can’t be beat.

Cosmetics:  100% Pure – amazing products.  The tinted moisturizer, eye shadows, and blush all get big thumbs up.

Skin creams and shower gel:  California Baby – I hate to say it……….as good as Kiehl’s.  It’s true.  The Calendula cream kicks Kiehl’s Abyssine cream’s butt, and it’s so much kinder to the wallet.  And with far fewer ingredients of concern.

Nail Polish:  Priti Polish – nail polish and remover is one of the leading offenders in chemical content.  Priti, astoundingly enough, offers a great product without the harsh ingredients that throw out the red flags.

As far as hair color goes:  Better to wait until after the first trimester, and thereafter, better to go to a stylist, who can apply the coloring so that it does not make contact with your scalp.