Research Into Topic

The main subject of my final product will be based around the harmful chemicals that are featured in many cosmetic products that are produced today. To learn more about my chosen topic, I have researched news articles that highlight what chemicals exist in cosmetics and what the side effects are.  The first article I looked at was by the David Suzuki Foundation. This is a foundation that revolves around natural products so is a company that is trust worthy and reliable. The document explains the statistics of chemicals being in makeup products and then perhaps the main feature of the articles is when they name the chemicals and explain the side affects of these.



These chemicals have been dubbed the 'Dirty Dozen' by the David Suzuki foundation. When reading these, one of the most common side effects are Cancer and can cause harm to fish and other wildlife.

I used a highlighter to emphasise which sections are most important and informative within the article. These are highlighted parts such as "one in eight of the 82,000 ingredients used in personal care products are industrial chemicals" and when they surveyed Canada's products they found that "80% of entered products contained at least one of these toxic chemicals".

Another article I researched was one by the 'Mail Online'. This article could perhaps be a little less trustworthy compared to the 'David Suzuki Foundation', due to newspapers having a known reputation of boasting and exaggerating their facts and information. This article is again about the harmful chemicals that are featured in make up, however is focused on a specific topic such as the rise in asthma in children. Compared to the first article, the 'Mail Online' highlights how to reduce these chemicals and the risk for getting asthma.

Again, I have highlighted the key facts that stand out within the article. This is information like "Babies exposed to high levels of phthalates in the womb are up to 78% more at risk" and "Around 5.4million Britons have asthma, including 1.1million children". Advice such as "Avoid using plastic containers and to store your food in glass jars in the fridge" is given to help readers to be more healthy and to change their ways to reduce the side affects.

The second page goes into more detail about the side affects for women and babies. Such as, "Children born to women with the highest levels of butylbenzyl phthalate were 72% more likely to develop asthma". These worrying and scary figures will encourage women to change their habits so to reduce the chances of getting asthma, which is just one of the many side affects from being exposed to so many chemicals in cosmetic and plastic products.