Accept it: life is overloaded with chemicals. We eat chemically enhanced food, we drink water of questionable quality, and we inhale pollutants every minute. According to Environmental Protection Agency, indoor air is two to five times more polluted than the air outside. Building materials, furnishings, carpet, household cleaning products, and chemical air refreshers all add up to already dangerous mix of radon, pesticides, and outdoor air pollution.

As if it weren’t enough, we are exposed to a whopping amount of chemicals lurking in her skincare and makeup products. Statistics say that an average North American woman owns about five hundred dollars’ worth of cosmetic products. That’s a lot! After a quick count of chemical ingredients containing in a typical cleanser, toner, moisturizer, eye cream, facial scrub, body wash, body lotion, and sunscreen, I came up with more than two hundred different chemicals that an average woman applies to her skin daily!

We are careful about the water we drink, we choose organic and locally grown foods, but in fact the amount of chemicals we swallow with our food is very small compared to the amount of toxins we absorb through our skin. Unfortunately, most skincare products we use today are formulated with synthetic and sometimes toxic ingredients. Dangerous and mostly unstudied for safety, they can create new toxic compounds when they interact with each other.

Our skin can easily absorb chemicals, no matter good or bad. According to the recent research more than 60 per cent of topically applied chemicals are absorbed by skin and spread all over the body with the bloodstream Doctors use this ability to deliver medications transdermally, for example, in nicotine and contraceptive patches. And since the skin is the largest organ in our body it soaks up toxic chemical contaminants in much larger amounts than intestines or lungs.

Toxic chemicals that penetrate the skin may provoke irritation and inflammation of the skin especially when they are intensively rubbed into skin (scrubs, cleansers) or left on skin for a long time (moisturizers, toners). And while ecological matters are often beyond our control, we can reduce the exposure to harmful chemicals by carefully choosing products that we use to wash, scrub, tone, moisturize and rejuvenate our skin.

Most skin care products on the market today contain hundreds of synthetic additives that are in most cases not proven safe to use. While there are certain regulations when it comes to industrial-strength toxic chemicals, no one is able to calculate the risks of using the same toxic chemicals in small doses over many years. No one can tell what impact on health daily applications of SPF50 sunblock may have in ten years from now—apart from pale skin—simply because these sunblocks have been introduced not so long ago. Beauty products are most often tested on mice or rabbits whose lifespan is rather limited compared to the one of a man. Human studies conducted by manufacturers often focus on overall appeal such as pleasant smell, a light texture or short-term results, such as “instant lifting effect.”

Unfortunately, many cosmetic manufacturers use not only toxic, but potentially carcinogenic ingredients that increase our risk of having a cancer at some point in our lives. As if breathing polluted air and eating chemicals was not enough! When you apply a skincare product that contains these ingredients, all potentially cancer-causing poisonous chemicals are absorbed by the skin and carried with blood all over the body. The poisonous chemical can also interact with other chemicals in our bodies. Sometimes these chemical reactions produce substances that promote cells to evolve in a wrong way resulting in cancer. Toxic ingredients may lead to many other serious diseases including allergies, fertility problems, diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease. In the best-case scenario, they may worsen existing acne or may cause an allergic reaction that resembles acne. That’s why we sometimes “break out” after using a new cream or a cleanser.

Toxic chemical ingredients have also been proven to disrupt hormonal balance. Hormonal glands activated by chemicals send frequent signals to all bodily systems, including sebum glands, which results in sebum overproduction and increased shedding of pore lining which both contribute to acne. Chemicals such as silicones clog pores blocking the excretion of sebum which triggers the acne reaction. Chemicals such as petrolatum (mineral oil) coat the skin with artificial grease which doesn’t allow skin function normally expelling toxins and moisturizing itself using its own sebum.

Some chemicals enhance the penetration of topically applied skin products exposing the body to even greater amount of toxic substances. In addition, they may irritate the skin starting micro-inflammation inside the pore or increasing existing inflammation. No wonder that skin conditions such as eczema, allergic dermatitis and acne are on the rise.

Julie Gabriel, author of Clear Skin: Organic Action Plan for Acne, available at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.