Writing Assignment #2 - Irish Spring Soap ingredient investigation

Ingredients

• Soap (Sodium tallowate, Sodium cocoate and/or sodium palm kernelate)
• Water
• Hydrogenated tallow (skin conditioner)
• Petrolatum
• Glycerin (skin conditioner)
• Coconut acid
• Sodium chloride
• Fragrance
• Polyquaternium-6
• Aloe barbadensis leaf extract
• Pentasodium pentetate
• Pentaerythrityl tetra-di-t-butyl hydroxyhydrocinnamate
• Titanium dioxide
• Chromium oxide greens

OED Toxicity List

Dioxins appear on the OED toxicity list, and I assume that titanium dioxide is a dioxin, however, according to the Skin Deep database, titanium dioxide is a low toxic hazard

Dioxide - A compound containing two oxygen atoms per molecule

Dioxin - Any of several toxic hydrocarbons that occur as impurities in petroleum-derived herbicides, disinfectants, and other products. Dioxins are composed of two benzene rings connected by two oxygen atoms, and the most familiar kind, called TCDD, has two chlorine atoms attached to each benzene ring. TCDD was once thought to cause cancer and birth defects, but subsequent research showed it to have only mild toxic effects except at very high exposure levels.

 

EWG Skin Deep

All of the ingredients in Irish Spring have a low hazard toxicity score on Skin Deep except for Fragrance, which has a high score of 8. It seems especially bad for causing allergic reactions. Fragrance is an ingredient that appears to be very vague in its description.  What exactly is Fragrance? I assume it’s the ingredient that makes the soap smell so Irish Fresh, but I have no idea what goes into it.

Chemical structure of polyquaternium-6

Polyquaternium-6 (PQ-6) is the polymeric quaternary ammonium salt derived from the homopolymerization of diallyldimethylammonium chloride (DADMAC) monomer

Polyquaternium-6 is used to make Irish Spring Soap. It sounds dangerous, but apparently it is some kind of comple chemical compound that is mostly harmless and it is good for your hair and skin. There are many different types of polyquaternium (Polyquaternium-5, polyquaternium-7, and polyquaternium-47), the number that follows indicates the order they were registered and are unrelated to their chemical structure.

Wikipedia says:

Polyquaterniums find particular application in conditioners, shampoo, hair mousse, hair spray, hair dye, and contact lens solutions. Because they are positively charged, they neutralize the negative charges of most shampoos and hair proteins and help hair lie flat. Their positive charges also ionically bond them to hair and skin. Some have antimicrobial properties.

What am I gonna do about it?

During this assignment I found nothing that would make me want to stop using Irish Spring Soap. Seems as though the biggest harm from using the product could come in the form of an allergic reaction and I have yet to experience any sort of skin allergies.  I am in no way loyal to Irish Spring soap or any other skin/hair care products.  I find that there is little difference between them.  Price is the main factor in my purchasing decision.

If it were the case that Irish Spring were extremely toxic, I would probably try to avoid it. There are plenty of other soaps on the shelf to choose from. But then again, I am pretty lazy about all this and I could see myself buying Irish Spring again if it was the most affordable, even if it might eventually kill me.