Cosmetic & Hygiene Safety Database

The lack of environmental rating standards for most industries can be really frustrating when you're trying to purchase the safest products for yourself and kids.  No rating system is perfect.  That being said, I've found the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep site to be helpful in determining which hygiene products to buy.

They cover a lot of products and brands from make-up to baby bubble bath and have a specific Babies & Moms section.

 Photo Credit: EWG Skin Deep

Their recommendation?  Choose the products with low hazard scores and at least "fair" data availability.

 Photo Credit: EWG Skin Deep


How does the rating system work?

This I took directly from their FAQ section:

Skin Deep presents two ratings for products and ingredients, a hazard rating and a data availability rating.
•The hazard score, a 0-10 scale from low to high hazard, reflects known and suspected hazards. A product's hazard rating can be higher than the sum of its parts, if, for example, the product contains chemicals called "penetration enhancers" that increase the amounts of ingredients that soak through the skin.
•The data availability rating - none, limited, fair, good or robust -- reflects how much scientists know - or don't know - about an ingredient's safety.

Consumers should take both factors into account. EWG recommends products with low hazard scores and at least "fair" data availability.

How do they determine an ingredient to be hazardous?

I was really wondering how they figured out which ingredients we should be watching out for in the first place.  This page lists the studies they used to determine which ingredients are known carcinogens, reproductive, or developmental toxins.

Of course, we keep finding new carcinogens year after year.  This website is a nice reference based on what we know now, but probably shouldn't preclude our parental sixth sense.