My two daughters – aged five and 10 – routinely return home from birthday parties with goodie bags stuffed to the brim with lip-gloss, nail polish, body glitter and “perfume”. Putting aside for the moment my concerns that they’re being groomed – so to speak – for a lifetime of high-maintenance good looks, a glance at the ingredients in these products makes me blanche.
It reads like a rap sheet for toxic criminals.
Lest you think I’m over-reacting, consider this: Tweens spend $500 million a year on beauty products, according to New York Magazine. Yet many of these products are chock-full of chemicals we don’t want anywhere near our daughters.
Phthalates, for example, are commonly used in fragrances, hair products and lotions. They appear under such chemical code names as diethyl phthalate (DEP), dimethyl phthalate (DMP) and dibutyl phthalate (DBP). Not only are these chemicals barely pronounceable, phthalates (pronounced thay-lates) are a family of endocrine-disruptin
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