Should we care about parabens?

Take a second to think about your daily routine, starting from when you get up in the morning. You probably shower; shampoo, conditioner, body wash, face wash. You get out and apply deodorant, lotion, facial moisturizer. Chances are if you are an average female you use a dozen products every day without even thinking about it. We rely on these products everyday, but certain ingredients have become controversial over whether or not they can cause long term health problems. But should we really be that worried?
It seems to me that every time we turn around, the F.D.A. throws something else at us that we are doing wrong daily that could potentially have long term negative effects, it's exhausting. And the raised awareness of harmful chemicals in beauty products has caused less and less brands to even list the ingredients on the bottle. If you want to learn more about what types of things to look out for, I found a great article that talks about it. http://www.youbeauty.com/health/beauty-chemicals
They make good arguments against certain chemicals, but for the most part the claims don't have enough evidence to prove they actually can cause cancer or disrupt your endocrine system, but the idea that things you are applying directly to your skin could be hurting you is really scary. I don't usually think about this as I rub on my lotion or apply my shampoo. I don't even bother to read the labels for products like that because you assume everything you are buying at the grocery or beauty supply store is safe to use and has been tested.
In my opinion, I think the hype over harmful chemicals in beauty products is being taken too far. And even if it is possible to see affects on the body, I don't think it is nearly as severe as they make it out to be. Companies that advertise products to be paraben and BPA free seem to be trendy, sort of like its trendy to eat healthier. It seems like people are avoiding certain chemicals in beauty products like they avoid certain foods in a diet. At the end of the day, I think you should read more than one article or hear one news story before deciding something is truly harmful and worth avoiding.

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