Baby Shampoo Should Be Safe. Not Toxic.

Whether we like it or not, our bodies are continuously exposed to hundreds of industrial chemicals. It may be shocking for an unsuspecting loving parent that a newborn baby is pre-polluted with as many as 300 industrial chemicals in their bodies (source: EWG).

Tests carried out by Environmental Working Group have identified 455 industrial chemicals in people, and again, no one really knows if these exposures are safe. Scientific research timidly associates the pollution in people with a range of serious diseases and conditions which I will resist mentioning, but we all know what I'm talking about here. While our knowledge about the links between chemical exposure and human disease grows, the government agencies always seem to be a few 7-mile steps behind the chemical industry with regard to ensuring consumers' safety. In addition, in its recently updated cancer risk guidelines, the Environmental Protection Agency concluded that babies are 10 to 65 times more vulnerable to cancer-causing chemicals than adults.


No More Toxic Tub!

Children’s bath products are often marketed as safe and gentle. However, a report by the American Campaign for Safe Cosmetics found these products are commonly contaminated with formaldehyde or 1,4-dioxane – and, in many cases, both. These two chemicals, linked to cancer and skin allergies, are anything but safe and gentle. 61% of the children’s bath products tested for this report contained both formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane. Popular products that contained both contaminants include: Johnson’s Baby Shampoo and L'Oreal Kids Shampoo. Aveeno Baby Wash range contained various levels of 1,4-dioxane. Some of the products tested (82%) contained formaldehyde at levels ranging from 54 to 610 parts per million (ppm). Formaldehyde, see my previous post on its controversy, is banned from personal care products in Japan and Sweden. The European Union limits formaldehyde concentration in cosmetics to 0.2% (2,000 ppm), and requires that personal care products containing formaldehyde or formaldehyde-releasing ingredients be labeled with the warning "contains formaldehyde" if the concentration of formaldehyde in the product exceeds 0.05% (500 ppm). Luckily, The European Union bans 1,4-dioxane from personal care products at any level.

Children: Not Just Little Adults

Several factors contribute to children’s exceptional vulnerability to the harmful effects of chemicals: 
Children are less able than adults to detoxify and excrete chemicals (in most cases).
Children’s developing organ systems are more vulnerable to damage from chemical exposures.
Children have more years of future life in which to develop disease triggered by early exposure.


Using a contaminated product once is unlikely to cause harm, but when used repeatedly and in combination with numerous other products, can add up to harm. Advertising claims appeal to parent’s desire to be gentle and loving to their children, but with so many ingredients of concern, parents need to look twice before they buy.

Check the baby product here in the Skin Deep Database before you buy it.

 Common Ingredients Likely to Be Contaminated with 1,4-dioxane: Peg-100 stearate, Sodium laureth sulfate, Polyethylene, Ceteareth-20.

Common Ingredients Likely to Be Contaminated with Formaldehyde: Quaternium-15, DMDM hydantoin, Imidazolidinyl urea, Diazolidinyl urea, Sodium Hydroxymethylglycinate.