Nano-whaticle? What’s in your Dad’s personal care products.

Sam Galyen | Brand Ambassador

Introducing...the Nanoparticle

Ever wonder what's the real difference between the personal care products your Dad uses versus today's all-natural, more environmentally conscious products?   I know I did as I wanted to know why so many guys my age were being drawn to these new products.  So like anyone else that’s curious about something, I dove in and searched Google high and low for credible comparisons between the products in Dad’s dopp kit versus the few all natural brands that piqued my interest.  Although there were quite a few differences, the most striking of these was the use of nanoparticles in many of the soaps and shampoos that are readily available.   Which begged the question...nano-whaticle?

Nanoparticles suck

My first conclusion with my nanoparticle deep dive was...well...nanoparticles suck.  Seriously, they do. Let’s first break down the word “Nanoparticle”. Nano meaning “small” and particle meaning “thing”. These “small things” are not just small things in the way we typically think of small things.  Small things are like chihuahuas and golf balls. In this context, nanoparticles are defined as “a particle of matter that is between 1 and 100 nanometres in diameter,”..which is really small, like thousands of times smaller than the width of a hair!  Additionally, another impactful find was the presence of nanoparticles and the negative effects they have on the human body. For years, nanoparticles have been used to determine color, transparency, and solubility. So in summary, many of the seemingly positive attributes of an old, trusted brand have been delivered through microscopic things. This didn’t sound good and thus kicked off my theory that nanoparticles do indeed suck.

Nanoparticles can permeate your skin and enter your bloodstream which carries the nanoparticles to your vital organs causing damage to cells

Impact and action

So what does this mean? To put it in situational terms, every time you take a shower with these products you are rubbing something along the lines of titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, or other polymers deep into your skin. Anything that minuscule is impossible to control or keep track of, which is where the danger arises. Nanoparticles can permeate your skin and enter your bloodstream which carries the nanoparticles to your vital organs causing damage to cells, DNA, and the brain. This doesn’t happen immediately, but over years of use, nanoparticles accumulate in the body and by that point, the damage is done.  What doesn’t get absorbed by the body travels down the drain and into the sewage system which eventually makes its way into our fresh water supply of lakes, rivers, and streams. As you can guess, this not only impacts our drinking water but also our fish and wildlife in equally detrimental ways. The timeline of accumulation and impact is accelerated in fish and seabirds as the level of consumption required to become fatal is significantly less than humans. No matter how you spin it, nanoparticles suck, so protect your body and take action. Educate yourself and make smart choices; use natural products with no synthetic particles and you’ll be doing yourself and your plant a huge favor.

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