Many people have asked me the safest bet of how to avoid chemicals in everyday products. Unfortunately, there are so many synonyms for chemicals it hard to say one best way to judge. So here goes at my best stab at what to look for or not!

• If you cannpt pronounce the chemical, don't buy it! Yes I know this is a bit unfair to companies using the proper chemical names of some really good things, but why do they have to do that. Are they hiding something?
  
• If it has a name that sounds like it was named after a chemist or a company, it is probably bad. For example, SLS is also know as
  AI3-00356
  Akyposal SDS
  Anticerumen
  Aquarex ME
  Aquarex methyl
  Avirol 101
  Avirol 118 conc
  Berol 452
  CCRIS 6272
  CP 75424
  Carsonol SLS
  Carsonol SLS Paste B
  Carsonol SLS Special
  Caswell No. 779
  Conco Sulfate WAG
  Conco Sulfate WAN
  Conco Sulfate WAS
  Conco sulfate WA
  Conco sulfate WA-1200
  Conco sulfate WA-1245
  Conco sulfate WN
  Cycloryl 21
  Cycloryl 31
  Cycloryl 580
  Cycloryl 585N
  Dehydag sulfate GL emulsion
  Dehydag sulphate GL emulsion
  Dehydrag sulfate gl emulsion
  Detergent 66
  Dodecyl alcohol, hydrogen sulfate, sodium salt
  Dodecyl sodium sulfate
  Dodecyl sulfate sodium
  Dodecyl sulfate, sodium salt
  Dreft
  Dupanol WAQ
  Duponal
  Duponal WAQE
  Duponol
  Duponol C
  Duponol ME
  Duponol QC
  Duponol QX
  Duponol WA
  Duponol WA Dry
  Duponol WAQ
  Duponol WAQA
  Duponol WAQE
  Duponol WAQM
  Duponol methyl
  EINECS 205-788-1
  EMAL 10
  EMAL O
  EPA Pesticide Chemical Code 079011
  Emersal 6400
  Empicol LPZ
  Empicol LS 30
  Empicol LX 28
  Emulsifier No. 104
  Finasol osr(sub 2)
  Finasol osr2
  
• If there are no ingredients listed, definitely don't buy it. Many laundry detergents don't list their ingredients because they technically do not come in contact with humans. We happen to think that the residue does.
  

This may not seem to be a sure fire method, but it is a simple start. If you look at some of the products listed on EWG.org, you will see that many of them have upwards of 50 chemicals in the product. Now multiply each by, lets say 25 different possible names for each chemical, I think that the possible combinations that one could find are near 1250 simple combos.

Sooo, the simplest words that you can understand are better. If a product list olive oil, water, avacado oil, beeswax and Shea butter, it is easy to understand what is in the product.

Regards,

Bob

This is way too confusing for me to try and analyze what is in my products. Is there someone that publishes whether a product is good (clean)or not?

Hi Mickey,

The Environmental Working Group www.ewg.org Skin Deep Report covers cosmetics. They have about 15,000 products listed. The problem is that they only cover a small part of our world.

It is very frustrating because everytime I study particular products I tend to find our something that I don't like about the ingredients. I especially don't like when products use all of these chemical names or rename something.

I hate to say it, but I am becoming a total DIY person. I am starting to make everything myself like my mother did. I am serious! This even includes food that I buy. I know it seems hard, but I have reduced the number of cleaning products down to such a small number, that I can make up what I need very quickly.

I do use the Keys products and others that are simple and pure. I have begun to cook more with pure ingredients and I am off of processed foods. You have to be careful, because even foods that you think are clean, are not. I saw a can of green beans that had propolyene glycol in them.

I am really worried though. I guess all we can try to do is be as clean as possible. Then we have to hope for the best I guess.

Simpler is better I think.