Matthew Probert

from Continuum Magazine

Have you ever wondered what goes into bubble bath? One day, whilst lying in the bath with nothing in particular to do I started pondering over what bubble bath is. I decided to read the label. The label described the bubble bath as "Bath will gently cleanse your skin, helping to leave it feeling soft and smooth." Sounds good! I went on to read the ingredients; Aqua, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Cocamide DEA, Sodium Chloride, Parfum, Glycol Stearate, Tetrasodium EDTA, Citric Acid, Formaldehyde, Polyquaternium-7, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Sodium Hydroxide. Quite a cocktail of chemicals. And then my warning sensors clicked on, below the ingredients was a boldly printed warning advising to" Avoid getting into eyes." If this substance is so great for the skin, why should it be so harmful to the eyes? I thought I'd investigate.

Apart from Aqua, (by which they mean water) the next most prolific ingredient is sodium laureth sulphate, although the manufacturer of this particular brand insists on using the American spelling. Sodium laureth sulphate is a surfactant. That is a substance that can reduce the surface tension of a liquid and thus allow it to foam or penetrate solids. It is also an industrial grade detergent, or degreaser. Like all detergents sodium laureth sulphate attacks grease, thereby helping to clean the skin. However, the human skin is a complex organ and contains glands which deliberately secrete grease or oil onto the skin to help keep it waterproof, supple and, to quote, "soft and smooth." Sodium laureth sulphate strips the natural oil from the skin leaving it rough and dry. That's not all sodium laureth sulphate does. Sodium laureth sulphate is a powerful detergent, garages use it to clean engine oil from their floors, it is also very corrosive. Perhaps that is why my bubble bath advises me to "avoid getting into eyes," well maybe. Or perhaps it's because sodium laureth sulphate attacks the formation of essential proteins in the the eyes leading to cataracts in adults and preventing children's eyes from forming properly. Further investigation reveals that sodium laureth sulphate is so harmful to the skin that it is used in medical laboratories to damage the skin before healing agents can be tested!

Having decided in future to stick to bath salts, I read the ingredients on my bath salts. No sodium laureth sulphate, but instead they contained something called sodium lauryl sulphate. Sodium lauryl sulphate is sodium laureth sulphate chemically combined with ethylene oxide to form larger molecules. Why on earth should anyone be concerned about the size of the molecules? Well, one reason is because small molecules, such as those of sodium laureth sulphate can pass through skin into the body where they enter the blood stream and build up in the internal organs - especially the brain and kidneys. Bearing in mind what sodium laureth sulphate does to the comparatively tough skin, I hate to think what it can do to the gentle internal organs.

Research in America at the Georgia University medical centre indicates that sodium laureth sulphate and sodium lauryl sulphate can both react with other chemicals found in cosmetics to form nitrosamines and 1,4 dioxine, which are both known carcinogens. For this reason the American Food and Drug Agency classifies both sodium laureth sulphate and sodium lauryl sulphate as drugs when used in cosmetics.

But it is not just in bubble bath that one finds chemicals harmful to the skin. They are also in toothpaste, shampoo, shaving creme and cleansers. In trying to find products that do not contain these harmful chemicals I visited supermarkets, chemists and health food shops. Surprisingly almost all cleansers include either sodium laureth sulphate or sodium lauryl sulphate, including the own brands of a well known health food shop and a certain wannabe ecologically friendly high street store. However, it is possible to find alternatives, you just need to check the ingredients label carefully. It is worth trying an alternative if you suffer from eczema, as I do, rather than simply washing in something which strips the skin and then using vegetable oil in the form of glycerine to moisturise it, or thinking that it is caused by some other pathological disorder.

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> Editor's note: After putting this article online I received an email telling me that I was irresponsible to publish this story. I feel that people should know what kind of chemicals they are putting on or into their bodies. The truth is we don't really know what this stuff does to us on a long-term basis. If someone is having skin problems they might want to avoid extra ingredients like fragrance or detergents. If I have helped only one person it's worth it, even if I received an unpleasant email.

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here are links to pages about health issues including pthalates

this new page has links about perfume, which can make people sick!

see also: Dangerous chemicals in personal care products compromise health
and Popular shampoos contain toxic chemicals linked to nerve damage about MIT, or methylisothiazoline, an ingredient found in many shampoos these days.
by Mike Adams

Children's Health Environmental Coalition's page about SLS

Wikipedia's page about Sodium Laureth Sulphate