The thread about lotions prompted me to come post this. I recently found out that my thyroid is basically not functioning anymore and I've had to start taking medication for that. Then I was telling a friend about it and she told me about a super cool and helpful app called Yuka. You can scan your products and it'll tell you what things are in there and if they are safe/healthy or not. I was horrified to find out how many of my products (soap, lotion, makeup, toothpaste, deodorant) all have BAD chemicals in them and so many of them have chemicals that are endocrine interrupters (AKA make your thyroid go wacky). My friend said that her daughter's thyroid was messed up too and she switched to all safer products and was able to go off her thyroid medication! The app has a barcode scanner, so you can scan products you already have and it'll even give you safer recommendations at the bottom of the screen which is super useful and helpful! Here's the first thing I scanned... YIKES (click to make bigger): Here's what it looks like. So I'm curious if anyone else has tried this app or not. It's crazy that our products are allowed to have these awful chemicals in them and I was so ignorant about it before now!
My sister uses the app as she had breast cancer. Her doctor did say though that a lot of the so-called "Bad" ingredients are actually safe- it's all about the chemistry/formulations and depends on what other products are in things & how they react together. She is supposed to avoid anything that mimics estrogen, she that's what she uses the app for.
And as far as SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulfate) that's just an emulsifier that makes your toothpaste & shampoo foam. There are many toothpastes that are SLS free and I'm sure shampoos too. Titanium dioxide is what makes your toothpaste white and sometimes they include it in whitening toothpastes to make your teeth look more white- whether that works or not is not scientifically proven. lol
Titanium Dioxide is banned in the EU but still allowed in North America. “Exposure can irritate the eyes, nose and throat. since it has been shown to cause lung cancer in animals. a carcinogen. Such substances may also have the potential for causing reproductive damage in humans”
That’s good to know about the endocrine disrupters affecting your thyroid. My neighbors daughter is having thyroid problems and a cancer scare. Maybe it’s all these products causing her problems. I use the BobbyApproved app. You can scan barcodes for food, beauty products, and all kinds of other items, cookware etc and it tells you if its ingredients are good or why they are bad. He has a YouTube channel (Bobby Parrish) and shows all kinds of healthy foods, recipes, what to buy at the Costco etc.
DH told me about an app like this recently. I'm always wary of the ingredients that are banned elsewhere but not in North America.
That's cool that your sister uses it too. Yeah, the warnings in my toothpaste weren't as scary as some of my cosmetics. My mascara came in at a 0/100 and has high risk chemicals that are endocrine disrupters. Ugh. I knew about the SLS in toothpaste and shampoo, but not the titanium dioxide. Good to know. I probably won't be switching my toothpaste for now, cuz I really like it. Lol. And it didn't give me a full out BAD rating.
That's cool that you already had an app like this. It's addictive once you start scanning stuff! I was at the grocery store last night scanning all kinds of things trying to find safer products. It really is unsettling how many products have bad stuff in them and I was so ignorant about it. Then I keep wondering why we allow that to happen here when other countries seem to be better about banning this stuff. I'm sure it all comes down to money... use whatever makes the products cheapest. Ugh. I hope you like it! I've even got my hubby scanning stuff now too. Lol. You're better than I am... I was so ignorant about all of this until I started scanning products and seeing what was in them. I naively assumed the agencies in charge of regulations would keep bad stuff out.
i know there's an app for everything these days but this seems pretty useful and gave some interesting results and food for thought - like Amie said some stuff i'd be less inclined to be concerned about (but your FDA and our version also have quite different standards on some chemicals etc) As someone that usually just buys what's on special in terms of face washes etc when i run out, i was annoyed in my playing with this app to find out that the 'sensitive skin' micellar water i just bought was rated so bad compared to the other variant i just finished but thanks for the link Karen. I guess i have to scan stuff before buying it in the future. (random but i have like 5 or 6 deodorants at the moment and the one i thought would have been best (because it's not an aerosol spray so it's my environmentally better one with 'natural ingredients' scored 0/100! The first thing i scanned that actually got an 'excellent' was hand sanitiser (good thing given how frequently it's used!) and even then it only scored 79, but as DS and I found some of it's number lines are a bit dodgey - like this is my cereal - not sure that's where i'd put the 3.4 marker on that fibre line and as a mathsy kid that is into programming he was kind of scathing of it lol
Yeah, my deodorant was a 0/100 too. I just started a new Yuka approved one and I don't love it. It's actually just a deodorant and no antiperspirant which is where the really bad stuff comes in for deodorants. Sigh. Lol on the 3.4 of the line... yeah, that would make me crazy too... it's not right!
Thanks for introducing me to this app. I tried it on my Himalayan popcorn. It got a poor, lesser evil score! I liked that it gave substitution suggestions.
My daughter introduced me to the yuka app about a year ago but now I use the EWG Healthy Living app to buy the cleanest possible products for my family. I switched out our personal products & am now switching over to cleaner cleaning products. As far as deodorant I am using one that someone local makes and so far so good. I really love the app, it gives products or food a score based on level of concern.
