to-EWG or not-to-EWG, that is the question

My sister recently sent me the Honest Company's December 19 response to EWG ratings. 

I have to say I understand their perspective. Prior to reading this response, I definitely read the ingredients in a few of the "higher rated" products and thought to myself "how can that possibly be better than [insert lower rated product]?"

EWG also doesn't really account for how the product was made (e.g. carbon neutral facility) or where certain ingredients are harvested (e.g. palm oil). For that, I had to do my own research - hence the blog. For example, Dr. Bronner's palm oil comes from a sustainably sourced farm in Ghana, rather than Borneo. 

So I think Honest Company hits the nail on the head when they say:

"EWG does an impressive job of pulling a ton of information together into one searchable database. [But it's] a starting point for better understanding...your products..."

Ultimately, it's up to you to know what you're using at home, what you're putting on/in your body, and what you need to avoid. The nice thing about EWG is that they help put it all together in an easier-to-read format.

Update (June 2018):

A couple of studies have been published recently discussing the effects of the chemicals that we use in our everyday products. In my opinion, this makes EWG's role in our life even more important. They have some super helpful guides to make it easier to make healthier choices, which can be especially difficult given the volume of options available in our local stores these days. They also provide a full list of ingredients for their evaluated products, which can often be difficult to find on a  product's packaging. For example, this is how I figured out that my dish detergent contained formaldehyde.

For more on this, please check out my post "this stuff actually matters".