Earth Watch: Personal Care Products Rival Cars as Contributors to Emissions

How much does your daily hygiene routine have to do with the quality of the air you breathe? More than you may think. “We all have a personal plume,” or a trail of chemicals we leave in our wake as we go about the day, according to Matthew Coggon, scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and lead author of a recent study on urban emission patterns. These plumes are made up of volatile chemicals from the products we use for beauty and hygiene like shampoo, hair styling aids, lotion, deodorant, and perfume, to name a few.1

Here's the scary part: Emissions from our morning routines are now rivaling those from car exhaust as the most significant contributors to urban air pollution. Yes, cosmetics, alongside other products containing volatile, petroleum-derived chemicals like household cleaners, paint, and pesticides, are roughly equal to vehicle emissions in their contribution to one of the world’s leading mortality risks, air pollution.2 3

Are you still trying to digest the fact that shampoo or cologne could have as much of an impact on air quality as the vehicle you drive? It begins with volatile organic compounds (VOCs), a class of chemicals that are quickly released from the products that contain them. In the air, they react with other compounds, such as nitrogen oxide, forming tropospheric (ground-level) ozone and fine particulate matter—two kinds of pollution with significant adverse consequences to air quality and health.4 Let’s take a look at two studies, led by scientists from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and their colleagues from CIRES, at the University of Colorado, Boulder, which provide some compelling evidence.

 

Personal Care Products

 

A 2018 study, published in the journal Science, analyzed data from multiple sources, including measurements from outdoor air in Los Angeles. What they found supports an emerging trend in urban air pollution: As car emissions have become cleaner, volatile chemical products, both consumer and industrial, are becoming increasingly significant contributors to air pollution. This study attributes 39 to 62 percent of emissions to volatile chemical products, including those in the personal care category 4 2

 

Meanwhile, researchers tracking emissions from traffic in Boulder, CO, made a startling discovery, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology in 2018. They identified a chemical, decamethylcyclopentasiloxane, or siloxane for short, that peaked during the morning commute at a level similar to benzene, a marker of vehicle exhaust. There was no trace of siloxane in tailpipe emissions, however. So, after hour-by-hour data analysis, they found that siloxane, a common ingredient used in cosmetics like lotion and shampoo, peaked during the morning commute, shortly after drivers had applied these products.1 Why should it matter, as the Lorax says, “a whole awful lot?”5 According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated seven million people across the globe die due to exposure to air pollution every year (indoor and outdoor combined).6 Ground-level ozone unleashes a vicious cycle of adverse effects on the planet as well. It acts as a significant greenhouse gas and plants are highly sensitive to it, which can have negative impacts like reducing crop production and reducing atmospheric carbon capture by vegetation.7

 

What Are We to Do with This Information?

While we may have a limited say in regulations, we DO have a say in our everyday habits. Choose your cosmetics wisely and look for options that have essential oil-based scents and are free of petroleum-derived ingredients since they contribute some of the most harmful VOCs to the air we breathe. At Natural Grocers, our guiding principles are rooted in offering the best available selections that support your health and the planet. We work very hard to minimize ingredients that may have significant adverse environmental impacts and are continually updating these standards as new information becomes available.8 We want our "personal plume" to leave as light an impact as possible. What will you leave in yours?

 

References Available Upon Request