Everything Will Kill You: Consumer Apathy towards Hazards in Every Day Products
We hear so much about how products we use every day can be hazards to our health that the information can become overwhelming and thus we often take no action to protect ourselves or the environment. The other problem is there tends not to be clear preferable options. Take water bottles. There has been a slow shift away from disposable plastic bottles because of the amount of waste and the toxins associated with production and that if left in hot places the plastic leaches potentially harmful chemicals into the water and the same with reusable Nalgene Bottles. Then when a metal alternative is produced reports surface about how these bottles may actually be more toxic because they use more resources to produce thus polluting our air instead. This conundrum leaves consumers feeling helpless or apathetic as they are given many choices but not a clear alternative.
"Oh, I heard that this is toxic, whatever, everything can kill you" is a phrase that often comes up in conversation once you begin to address these problems. That is why the center has been dedicated to green chemistry (removing harmful chemicals in the design of products). However, the removing these chemicals is not always easy. In some cases alternatives can actually benefit the bottom line but in cases where the financial benefit is less clear or non-existent consumer demands would help speed such initiatives.
Take shampoo, which has more chemicals in it than a person would like to think about. Most of these chemicals are not "needed" but are add to produce a product that will be more desirable for consumers i.e. color, foam, smell, texture, effect etc. For example, Octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane and Decamethylcyclopentasiloxane labeled on a shampoo bottle often as siloxanes D4 and D5 are added to make hair more silky, soft and easier to manage. But these chemicals are likely damaging aquatic life and the Canadian government is in the process of banning them. Since the majority of chemicals in cosmetic waste are not filtered by treatment plants we are adding tremendous amounts of toxins to our water shed. Plus we don't actually need to use them. Citric acid is used to make your hair lie flat. To make you use more of the product companies make shampoos thicker. To do this they use glycol distearate, cetyl alcohol, ammonium xylene sulfonate or salt. Also to make shampoo more bubbles they use cocamide MEA which at concentrated levels is toxic. This list goes on and on.
This is why we need to think about how we approach environmental policies. If we continue to operate with the proven harm concept to ban chemical instead regulating that manufactures have to prove safety it will be a continued process of slowly shifting from certain products. Consumer choice could have a large impact on manufacturing behavior.
