Maybe you use them to freshen your own hands up when youve been snacking in the car on a run out? Or, maybe you just use them for their supposedly prime purpose, to wipe and clean your little ones precious little tush! But just what do you think you are wiping all over that softest of soft spots when you use a baby wipe?

Baby wipes, dont they just give you the impression that they are caring, gentle, hygienic, fragrant, the very essence of the nursery...and ideal for keeping those tiny private parts clean, wholesome and safe! "Thank the powers" that this marvel of hygienic technological innovation has been invented to save our poor babes from simply being flannelled down with warm soapy water! (Yes, you can detect a note of sarcasm!)

For if you do think that baby wipes are a great invention you need to think again! Have you even seen the huge list of ingredients, usually printed in barely legible, microscopic detail on the side of most packs of baby-wipes? Its often alongside an acknowledgement by some supposed authority that supports the efficaciousness of this wonderful product, along with claims "they are clinically tested", and that they are suitable for "sensitive skin" and so on...but one is prone to ask, by what standards?

For if you take a closer look at that fine print, you will likely find some, or all, of these ingredients listed on a pack of baby wipes:

- Dimethicone ? A known irritant to sensitive tissues, and can also cause tumours.

- Propylene glycol ? Thats right you may have spotted this ingredient used in anti-freeze!

- Methylparaben ? a Xenoestogen known to mimic the sex hormone estrogen which can lead to precocious physical sexual development ? and a chemical that has been found in 9 out of 10 breast cancer tumors!

- Ethylparaben ? The equally suspicious relatives of Methylparaben.

- Propylparaben ? Yet another of the nasty family with the same dubious potential!

- Numerous other synthetic and questionable chemicals that have not been fully tested for safety.

...Plus, of course the odd soothing and natural-sounding substance, which must be largely added to counteract the possible irritant potential of some of the other ingredients, one might guess!

So what do you think is the risk of regularly (say 3, 4 or 5 times a day) wiping these chemicals over a babies most sensitive areas?

Who knows? Certainly the testing for long-term human health and safety of many of the chemicals used in these products has never been anything like exhaustive, to date.

Coincidentally (and to be quite clear I am not saying there IS a link, the research just has not been done...YET) but over the period since baby wipes have been around there has been an insidious rise in childhood cancers. In the US, childhood cancer rates rose in the order of a 1% per year from the early 1970s through to the mid 1990s. In other words childhood cancers had risen by almost 25% over that period! If not due to baby wipes alone, there is certainly a school of thought that increasing environmental exposure to toxic chemicals may have been a major influence on this dramatic increase.

You can do at least one simple thing to reduce YOUR own child, or childrens, exposure to unnecessary chemicals risks. Avoid using the many products, like baby- wipes, so blatantly marketed as safe and hygienic choices for personal care but which are so purposely contaminated with suspicious chemicals they could be doing more harm than good!

In fact, why not go the whole hog and make a choice to get closer to nature and choose chemical-free body care products for all the family, containing only those natural ingredients known for hundreds, if not thousands, of years as genuinely good for the skin.

By going natural and organic in your choice of personal care products (as you might have already done with your food) you will be protecting not only your own long-term health and well-being but that of your much-loved little ones, too!

A Graham Smith writes for http://www.gonaturalandorganic.com/ A website devoted to encouraging the adoption of a less toxic lifestyle, where you can claim a free Toxic Chemical Spotters Guide to help you avoid the worst of todays toxic ingredients in personal care products.