The smelly stuff in your body products is listed as fragrance or parfum

Parfum/Fragrance - The Hidden Toxins in Our Bath Products

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You might have seen my post “The Story of Cosmetics“, which outlines the toxic chemicals used in our everyday bath products. It’s crazy really. Why would we willingly douse ourselves in toxic chemicals everyday? Well the truth is most don’t know; the manufacturer’s do a great job of hiding the ‘true’ ingredients of their products under the veil of ‘trade secrecy’. Well it’s time to stop this.

The David Suzuki Foundation has started a campaign but they need your help. Here is what they have to say:

Valentine’s Day means that love is in the air – and so is whatever makes your armpits smell “powder fresh”.

We’re talking about parfum in your cosmetic products. You want to smell good, but just like love, it’s what’s on the inside that counts – especially if there’s nothing but toxic weird stuff buried deep down inside.

The smelly stuff in your body products is listed as fragrance or parfum. What companies don’t have to tell you is that fragrance contains dozens of toxic chemicals. It’s considered a trade secret. These hidden chemicals make your bodywash smell like “extreme aqua sport”, but they can also cause bad things – allergic and asthmatic reactions, migraines and more – and that’s not sporty at all.

We need an honest relationship with our cosmetics.

Tell our health minister that you want to know the secret ingredients in fragranced body products. It’s up to Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq to make decisions that protect our health.

Ask Leona Aglukkaq to get the skeletons out of the closet and require cosmetic companies to tell it to us straight – what chemicals are in our body products?

Manufacturers don’t have to tell you everything they put in their fragranced body products. It’s considered a trade secret. Instead, the general term parfum (or sometimes fragrance) will appear on ingredient lists – a loophole in Canada’s ingredient labelling requirements.

Why is this bad? Fragrances can contain a complicated mixture of chemicals. Many are linked to serious health issues, like asthma, allergies, hormone disruption, and migraines. And because fragrance is in nearly everything, it poses a serious, hidden health risk.

Some people choose to avoid toxic chemicals in their everyday bath and body products. But there’s no way of knowing what’s in a product that includes parfum or fragrance. We need to close the ingredient labelling loophole. Consumers have the right to know about all ingredients contained in cosmetics – including fragrance chemicals.

European regulations are stronger. They require 26 sensitizers used as cosmetic fragrances to be identified on the label. That’s a start, and it’s better than what we have in Canada.

It’s up to our Health Minister, Leona Aglukkaq, to update Canada’s regulations. Send her your concerns, and ask her to reflect the needs of all Canadians by making companies disclose all fragrance ingredients.