ingredients in shampoo's e.t.c

[happycat]

Doe's anyone know of a site or can tell me the difference between ethanol and Benzyl alcohol my ds1 has just been allergy tested and have been told to avoid ethanol and alcohol.i am confussed as to what it all mean should anything with the word alohol attached be avoided?

may of got more of a response if I had called the thread Alcohol then

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Uknowme thankyou for your reply just downed a bottle of jacobs creek doe's this mean I should stay clear of him too?

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There is an Allergy Association, I think, which should be quite useful.

Ethanol is an alcohol, as is benzyl alcohol, so the advice you've been given sounds a bit confusing. Ethanol is the type of alcohol that's in drinks, but there are other chemical sub-types like methanol and benzyl alcohol. If they really mean that he's allergic to all alcohol, then yes, I guess you have to avoid anything with the word in it. Presumably they gave you advice about whether they meant internally or externally?

Don't you love the way that they all list water as Aqua! Don't want us all thinking that we are spending our money on water! And not telling us that Vitamin E is added to stop it going rancid, not because it does our skin any good!

I know, that just seemed to suddenly be on everything a few years back. They must think we are all incredibly thick....What about sodium laureth sulphate? Is that not good old SDS that we're not allowed to weigh out in the open lab any more?

Happycat, ethanol is different than benzyl alcohol. I'm not quite sure how to describe it, but benzyl alcohol is more gasoline-ish (slippery, kinda smelly substance -- benzene with an MeOH attached) whereas ethanol is, as tamum said, the alcohol that I'm drinking. (Well, she didn't say that, but..) Chemically they're quite different.

Benzyl alcohol isn't very soluble in water (it's like oil) whereas ethanol makes a great mixer for drinks, etc and is completely soluble.

What kind of allergy tests did she have done? If it's any help, ethanol is similar to methanol (methyl alcohol) and propanol (propyl alcohol) and butanol (butyl alcohol). You can't drink any except for ethanol, but structurally they're all alkyl alcohols. There are more, but they get less similar in physical characteristics.

Tamum, what is SDS? Sounds deadly.

DOn't get me started on SLS...it's in everything.

Finbar, my favourite shampoo was the Green People Rosemary shampoo -- here is a link to their website. SLS free. (Was just having a look to see if they shipped to CH.)

Hi JJ, I was hoping you would come along to answer this properly! The thing about SDS was slightly tongue in cheek. It's sodium dodecyl sulphate which we use in lots of solutions for molecular biology. I always used to weigh it out in large quantities in the open lab, along with everyone else, but it's been deemed to be terribly toxic by inhalation for a good few years now, so we have to weigh it out in fume hoods (not very interesting, sorry!)

You'll find this funny then: sodium lauryl sulfate (also used in shampoos and slightly different than sodium laureth sulfate) is a synonym for SDS. Have to admit to looking that up, as it seemed odd that something so big was so dangerous to breathe in. Of course, it's probably that the physical act of pouring it out produces a dust that's not so good for your lungs. And, honestly, I'm not against any of the above. I luuurrrve chemicals.

I'm the most boring drunk person ever.

Hi again! We can be boring together . I knew that sodium lauryl sulphate was the same, but I wasn't sure about laureth. I think it is the difference between powder and solution that causes the safety issue, but it was always one of my rants that it was the same bloody stuff I washed my hair in.....

Laureth has an ether bit in there somewhere toward the end. So it's all sticky. Did the powder bring up dust? I can see how coating all those little lungy bits (alveoli?) would be a bad thing. Doesn't matter so much on your head, but you should rinse it off, of course. For more reasons than that it might be harmful...

so would it be if we were all allegy tested we would all have a slight allergy to this ethanol.bugger that