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Is it true sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) and sodium laureth sulfate (SLES) cause cancer, blindness, or hair loss?

April 26, 2017cancer cause hair loss laureth Lauryl sles SLs sodium Sulfate

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Is it true sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) and sodium laureth sulfate (SLES) cause cancer, blindness, or hair loss?

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Neither sodium laurate (coconut soap), SLS, nor SLES is known to cause cancer, nor are they known to be teratogens or reproductive toxins. Neither do sodium laurate, SLS, or SLES cause blindness. They can be irritants, and the inflammation they may cause almost always clears in a few hours. This is also true of soaps. The booklet “The Truth behind the Ingredient Myths” produced by another natural products company, discusses this in greater detail. The Danish EPA has produced an excellent document that discusses household product ingredients, and SLS and SLES are discussed in Section 3.1 and 3.2, respectively. The discussion of toxicity and irritancy is quite detailed. The document is also a handy reference about other household chemicals.