New ingredients survey rates popular body lotions for potentially hazardous chemicals
Are you worried about chemicals in your everyday cosmetic and personal care products? Unwanted harmful chemicals such as allergens and hormone disrupting chemicals can unfortunately be found in cosmetic and personal care products. But the good news is that there are products available that don’t contain these unwanted chemicals. A recent survey by the Danish Consumer Council has found many commonly used body lotions are free from these hazardous chemicals.
The Danish Consumer Council reviewed 49 body lotions and moisturisers, and most of the lotions (24 out of a total 49) received the best chemical rating. Whilst some are Danish brands, they also looked at several of the most popular branded moisturisers you can find in the UK (Nivea, Vaseline, Sanex, Body Shop, amongst others).
The Danish Consumer Council checked whether the products contained unwanted chemicals, and ranked them ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘C’ based on their contents. This assessment was done by checking the ingredients lists on each product, not by a chemical analysis. They classify unwanted chemicals as those that are considered to be, or are suspected of being: hormone disruptors, allergenic, carcinogenic, toxic to reproduction, or environmentally harmful (such as being persistent in nature or accumulating in the environment or in animals). In this study most of the lotions got an ‘A’ rating (24 products out of 49), only 7 got a ‘C’ rating (7 products out of 49). Read more about this study.
Earlier this year a global study from the Danish Consumer Council found unwanted chemicals in a wide range of cosmetic products available worldwide. CHEM Trust participated in this study looking at popular cosmetic and personal care products available in the UK. 20 of the 28 products surveyed in the UK contained one or more potentially hazardous chemicals.