Here’s a summary of some of the claims you should look out for when evaluating a product that is packaged in a way that makes it appear to be either “Natural” “Eco-Friendly” or “Green”:
- Natural Claims
This is the most common and the most nebulous of claims on personal care products. Since there are no regulatory standards here, you have to educate yourself as much as possible on the difference between natural and not-so-natural ingredients to decipher the claims. The main things to consider are a company or brand’s track record, and hidden trade-offs with respect to the product’s ingredients.The Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database enables you to see how both companies and their individual products rank in terms of health and safety. Products with higher rankings (i.e. 7-10) generally contain a higher amount of potentially toxic chemicals and questionable ingredients. Companies whose products rank in the middle to high range should be scrutinized more carefully. Their claims of being “natural” likely involve trade-offs –meaning they may contain natural ingredients but they also contain harmful ingredients. Keep in mind that the term “natural” does not speak directly to the environmental benefits of the product or the manufacturer’s environmental practices.
- Free From Claims
Beware of “free from” claims –ones that tend to emphasize what’s not in the product at the expense of what is. These can be highly misleading because they either imply that the free from ingredient is in some way undesirable when that may not be the case, or worse, the free from ingredient is one that has no relevance to either the safety of the product or its environmental impact. These types of claims can also be another way of re-directing attention from the hidden trade-offs mentioned earlier. And oftentimes, there’s no way to verify the legitimacy of the claim.
For example, a company that makes scented products using “fragrance” may put a “free from phthalates” claim on its label. Since the term “fragrance” is not regulated, how can you know that this claim is true? What proof is being offered to validate the claim either on the label or elsewhere? In this example the only way you can judge is if the product is still scented with “fragrance” as opposed to pure essential oils. At the end of the day, you have to know how to read and understand ingredient panels to determine if there are in fact hidden trade-offs that are being masked by the more prominent claims or so-called seals on the product labels.
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