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Fear and Nonsense
Should you avoid orange juice? You probably should if you take the Environmental Working Group’s database seriously. Orange juice contains citric acid, a chemical that EWG warns presents “moderate concerns” about neurotoxicity and organ system toxicity and is subject to “Violations, Restrictions & Warnings” since it is “prohibited for use in cosmetics, or subject to concentration, use, or manufacturing method restrictions....”
EWG’s various warnings about the hazards of citric acid are from Skin Deep, a database they describe as “a safety guide to cosmetics and personal care products.” The NGO states that Skin Deep “pairs ingredients in nearly 25,000 products against 50 definitive toxicity and regulatory databases....” The environmental watchdog group states that they established the database “because the FDA doesn’t require companies to test their own products for safety.”
As the orange juice example demonstrates, even common chemicals which are safe and healthy to ingest trigger warnings from the Skin Deep database – raising serious questions as to EWG’s judgement concerning “safety” and undermining the notion that some massive new testing program is needed.
Although Skin Deep contains all manner of warnings, it doesn’t bother with such trivialities as considering the dose or exposure level needed to cause concern about a given substance. In short, EWG went to a quite a bit of work to generate fear and nonsense.
See Skin Deep
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