What's In Your Personal Care Products?

Short Wave

NPR

Daily News, Nature, Life Sciences, Astronomy, Science, News

4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 19 March 2025

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ever scan the ingredient list of your favorite personal care products like shampoos or lotions and think, what are these complicated chemicals? And are any of them bad for me? We definitely have. And our colleagues at NPR's Life Kit did one step better: They parlayed their anxiety spiral into a helpful guide on the safety of personal care products. So today, Gina talks to Life Kit's Marielle Segarra about some of the top chemicals of concern, including parabens and phthalates.

Click here to hear the full Life Kit guide — including how to audit your go-to products.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Neuroscientist Ethan Cross says you may think it's healthy to vent about what's bothering you.
0:06.4	But...
0:07.1	The problem is you often leave that conversation feeling really good about the person you just communicated with.
0:13.3	But all the negative feelings are still there.
0:15.7	Sometimes they're even more activated.
0:18.1	Tools for managing our emotions.
0:20.7	That's on the TED Radio Hour podcast from NPR.
0:24.5	You're listening to Shortwave.
0:27.3	From NPR.
0:29.4	Hey, ShoreWavers.
0:30.3	Regina Barber here with LifeKit host, Mariel Sagada.
0:33.4	Hey, Mariel.
0:34.1	Hey, Gina.
0:35.1	Okay, so, Mariel, recently on LifeKit, you've been reporting on the safety of personal care products.
0:41.1	We have.
0:42.1	And we found that the story goes back at least to 1933 when this new mascara and eyebrow dye came on the market.
0:51.5	In America, it was called lash lore.
0:53.6	And the advertisements told women,
0:56.1	you know, that they would radiate personality when they used this product.
1:00.0	Who wouldn't want that? Right. Yeah. But unfortunately, LashLore contained a chemical dye
1:06.1	that blinded several women and it led to another one's death. And that was at a time before the
1:13.1	Food and Drug Administration had the power to ban dangerous chemicals in cosmetics and personal
	...

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