vigilant, says Malkan. Research into the safety of common chemicals and regulation of them is still extremely poor. Green Living interviewed Malkan about the state of the industry. Green Living: There are stats saying we are putting as using up to 250 chemicals once we have finished all our grooming. Is that possible? Stacy Malkan: Many of us are using several products a day from these companies. I was a 17-year old make-up diva and was using 20 products a day. I looked them up in the Skin Deep database and it turned out I was exposing myself to 200 chemicals per day before I had even gotten on the school bus. I think that's fairly typical. We've done surveys that show the average woman uses between 12 to 20 products per day containing about 160 chemicals. GL: That's a lot of chemicals to have on your skin! SM: It is. There are also a lot of chemicals mixing together with unknown effects. No one is looking at those combinations. They're not looking at the total exposure and the health effects of repeated exposure to chemicals over time. GL: Phthalates have been in the news quite a lot lately, particularly around baby products and children's toys. SM: Scientists have known for 30 years that phthalates are toxic and interfere with the production of testosterone. There are literally hundreds of animal studies that show how phthalate exposure can cause birth defects of the penis, testicular tumours and infertility. So, there's been