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Why does PND use EWG's Cosmetics Database?

By Tania Reuben

A few of you may have noticed that I rely heavily on the EWG’s Cosmetics Database as a tool for analyzing products on PND.

You will notice that brand X has an average product rating of 6 or that a specific product has an EWG score of 4.

Many of you may wonder why?
Who has the educational background or the time to analyze all the products they bring into their home. Reading labels, especially personal care product labels in an effort to avoid the less desirable ingredients takes forever! Even if you focus on the top ten worst ingredients, it’s mind boggling. I personally leave the store feeling beat up every time.

When I finally found the Cosmetics Database I was thrilled. I could just input the name of a Shampoo and it would tell if it would be good for my family. Simple, if you don’t minding sifting through over 1800 Shampoos to find one you want to buy.

The Cosmetic Database has analyzed over 46,000 products from over 2300 brands, examining over 8500 ingredients. In the absence of good government regulation, this makes it the most comprehensive site I have found.

The Cosmetics Database uses information from a myriad of sources to determine the toxicity of a product. Ranging from the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), CIR (Cosmetic Ingredient Review), FDA (Food and Drug Administration), IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer) and so many others!

They take all the information on all the ingredients, cross reference it with all the information from global agencies and respected research groups, weight the information and have come up with a formula to analyze the ingredients and give each product a hazard score.

Basically, The Cosmetics Database does more detailed analysis than I could ever do!

You really don’t need me, wander over to their database and have at it. Analyze your own products and come up with solutions that work for your family.

The truth is, even with this fantastic tool that the EWG has provided, it’s extremely time consuming to go through and come up with answers. It’s too much information for the average person to wade through… thankfully I’m a little OCD and sadly I enjoy sifting through all the results.

Hopefully you and your family appreciate and benefit from the efforts.

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