Johnson & Johnson - Cleaning Their Baby Soaps?

Picture Source: somethingblue2.blogspot.com

When I was in my early 20's I worked as a bartender, I loved my job.  One of my favorite times of day was after the huge lunch rush had died down and the place was empty, you could hear the chatter of the wait staff sitting at the table in the back all waiting for dinner service to start up.  While they were chatting, I was still up front of the house tending to my bar, and it was at this time that I got the bar in order including washing all the glasses that had been used.  As I was waiting one day for a load to go through the washer, I had just placed dish soap into the machine and as I often do I leaned back against the counter and started to read the bottle.  As I was reading I was also drinking from a glass that had been washed with the same soap.  In mid sip of my drink (it was soda) I paused, eyes widened when I read in plain English but in very little text "This product may contain a cancer causing agent"  May? What the hell did they mean may?  and Oh My God, why would they even have to tell you that? Why would they even put that in there?  I had a lot of whys go through my head, but as a 20 something year old with no real cares in the world, I chose never to drink from a restaurant glass again and I casually brought it up every now and again in conversations where I wanted to seem intellectual :) Ahh to be 20 again.  Anyway, it wasn't until many years later when I was now expecting my first baby that this knowledge came back, only this time, I was about to have the biggest care in the world become my responsibility and I no longer just avoided bar glasses, I read every label and looked up every ingredient I wasn't familiar with.  Thanks to my bar tending days I was that much more aware.

It baffles me that in today's world, where we are relentlessly fighting against cancer that there are products on the market that include carcinogens (cancer causing agents) Many of these products are things we apply directly to our skin, and we don't just put it on, we rub it in, shampoo containing carcinogens are rubbed into the scalp, your head!!!!!!!! and people wonder why so many people have cancer. Depending on what products we use, as we shampoo and condition our hair or moisturize our bodies, we may be covering our hair and skin with dibutyl phthalate, one of the family of phthalates which have been found to disrupt the endocrine system, potentially cause liver cancer, and cause reproductive system damage (according to research published in the journal Pediatrics) Does anyone else see a problem with this?

Well apparently, and thankfully, they do, and Johnson & Johnson who is a huge distributor or such products is making changes. It was announced today that after years of pressure from many activists, personal care giant Johnson & Johnson finally reformulated its flagship baby shampoo without the use of formaldehyde-releasing preservatives. (more details here)

Now, on the flip side, I don't want to live my life constantly worried and angst about these things all day everyday, but I do feel that as a consumer, when I spend my money on products that those products should be safe, both in the interim and long term effects.  I don't need my shampoo or soap to suds up to feel clean, the chemical that creates those bubbles although found not to be a carcinogen (according to wikipedia)  is still a chemical, and its usually the second named ingredient on all products which means its one of the most used ingredient in the product, if it doesn't actually do anything other then give the perception that your product is better, then its a lie, you are lying to me as the consumer, you are putting a chemical out there that does nothing and its still a chemical, that I am putting on my body, and I am not OK with that, not being lied to or rubbing chemicals into my body or my children's, sure you say its safe now, and in a few years we find out you were wrong. How about you just remove it all together and its one less bad thing that's out there.  OK I guess my flip side quickly flopped back.

I am so thankful to those activists who have worked on making this happen.  This is a great gesture by J&J to make their products safer, however I'm sure they can do more.   The plan from what I heard is not to change all of the products, right now the focus is on the baby products, which thank goodness because if I have to choose between no more tears or no cancer for my baby, I think I will take a few tears.

This is definitely one to keep on top of.