We often see advertisements on television, like hair fall challenges, gora pan sirf 7 days main, flawless skin, ultimate cool shine, 100% dandruff free scalp? Aghhh they never actually work, in fact they makes your skin worse. We see advertisements of various popular brands on television but never actually notice the chemicals they are using? Have you ever wondered why organizations invest more in their marketing sector? I was you tubing few days back and got Annie Leonard’s project “the story of stuff”. She targeted popular brands and of course there were critiques too but I also read FDA and CBSnews.com as I was curious to know the behind story. As a student of business I am aware of branding and advertising. Frankly, FDA and other government agencies lost their credibility decades ago and no one believes that our well being is a top most priority for any of them.
Do we know what we are putting in ourselves daily? Toxic ingredients are often included in everyday cosmetic items and these harmful ingredients penetrate into the blood through the skin. They are in everything from our toothpaste to our favorite shampoo Even there is no reliability of deodorants, normally used.Researchers believe that 60% of breast cancers are found in the area of the breast closest to the armpit.
Industries set up their own committees to self investigate their products. They are the ones who make their own rules and decide whether to follow it or not. It’s the whole damaged system. All MNC’s (Multi-National Companies) want us to consume more and more so that they can gain huge amount of money we waste on things that are extremely harmful for us and the whole environment. People aren’t going to understand until and unless we take an initiative.
But problem is how to find the products which are least toxic? Sodium lauryl sulfate, sodium dodecyl sulfate and sodium laureth sulfate are used to make shampoo and soap foam up. We often see other chemicals on our daily products like tetrasodiumedta and methylisothiazolinone. What is this stuff? We don’t know what these chemicals effect on us when we use them. Let’s take a closer look. Annie Leonard mentioned in her report that average amount of women uses about 12 personal products daily and the average man about 6.
Of course not all the chemicals are harmful but we know most of them really are. Anybody can put anything in the bottle and call it natural and they do. We all go for fancy packaging and attractive advertisements. Today dozens of MNC’s say that toxics are small enough to be harmless. Industries are used to doing things this way because even now the scientists have proved that this is quite dangerous and there are no laws to get rid of them.
Toxic products can affect fetal health for a lifetime. So, next time when you go for beauty products shopping do read the ingredients or take the products to your next prenatal check-up. We are a third world country and we can’t afford health crises, there should be a managing committee in which researches should be included who keep check and balance on products manufacture in Pakistan or being imported. As we know healthy nations have healthy minds and they progress.
Syeda Nayum Latif
Karachi, Pakistan
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