2. Red and Blue dyes: Are you eating crude oil for breakfast?
These dyes are artificial colouring's often found in familiar toothpaste brands and a wide variety of other products.
Recent studies indicate that FD & C Blue Dyes 1 & 2 can trigger a wide number of behavioural, learning, and health problems.
Red and blue colour dyes may also potentially cause severe allergic reactions, asthma attacks, headaches, nausea, fatigue, nervousness, lack of concentration, and cancer. (From “Formation of carcinogenic aromatic amine from an azo dye by human skin bacteria in vitro” & “Skin discolouration with blue food colouring”)
Using red and blue dyes is just like ingesting crude oil as it too, is synthesized from petroleum. These dyes were originally made from coal tar oil, which is a black, sticky tar by-product of steel making and petroleum distillation.
Crude oil is a source of numerous complex chemicals. Through repeated human exposure, some of these isolated coal tar components were classified as active carcinogens, ultimately leading to government regulations and restrictions.
Today, coal tar dyes are synthetically engineered rather than extracted from actual coal tar, which greatly reduces the possibility of being contaminated with carcinogenic residuals from the coal itself.
However, the dyes still contain carcinogenic properties. Over several decades of use, some of these synthetic dyes have come under greater scientific and government scrutiny due to their carcinogenic and mutagenic activity. Because of this, they are still referred to in the industry as “coal tar dyes,” according to the FDA. (From U.S. Food & Drug Administration. “Colour Additives Fact Sheet.”)
Even if toothpaste is never swallowed, these dyes can be absorbed within seconds through the skin on the lips, or through the mucous membrane in the mouth. According to the Physician's Desk Reference, the mucosal lining inside of the mouth has an absorption efficiency of over 90 percent. Because of this, these carcinogens get into your blood, your brain, and your cells in no time at all – especially when you consider most people use dental care products 2 to 3 times a day. (From U.S. Food & Drug Administration. “Colour Additives Fact Sheet.”)
3. Sodium Lauryl Sulphate (SLS): Used clinically to irritate skin
Perhaps the most dangerous ingredient in personal-care products is Sodium Lauryl Sulphate (SLS). Because SLS has a foaming property, it is added to toothpastes in order to generate foam; giving the impression that the toothpaste is working. However, SLS has been found to be quite corrosive and harmful to skin tissue says a report by the American College of Toxicity.
In the cleaning industry, SLS is used in products such as garage floor cleaners, engine degreaser's and car wash soaps.
Elsewhere, SLS is used for clinical testing as a primary skin irritant. Laboratories use it to irritate skin on test animals and humans so that they may then test healing agents to see how effective they are on the irritated Skin.
The journal of the American College of Toxicology reports that SLS can penetrate and be retained in the eye, brain, heart, and liver with potentially harmful long-term effects.
Also found in most shampoos -including "no tears" baby shampoos-SLS can keep children's eyes from developing properly, can cause cataracts in adults, can delay healing at any age and impair the growth of hair.
