What is Sodium Lauryl Sulfate?

My angel food cake mix also contains sodium lauryl sulfate as a whipping agent. Why does this pass FDA rules?

I just want to say I live in Britain and I am on a low salt diet. I have been taking iron tablets for a while. Lately, I have been feeling really ill, with sickness, dizziness etc., and had very bad headaches.

I checked my medicines and they have changed and the new iron tablets contain SLS. It's really sad that tablets make you more ill than you were in the first place.

I feel that people who understand all these chemicals should stand up and say something. There are a lot of ill and vulnerable people out there who unwittingly take what the doctors prescribe.

SLS is in Doxasin tablets that are probably taken by most people with high blood pressure - and this is in the UK.

@anon191948: I don't make a habit of jumping on the "chemicals bad" bandwagon, but I cannot have SLS in my toothpaste. It gives me mouth ulcers. Something about that stuff irritates the lining of my mouth and I'll get a mouth ulcer every time. They are painful and annoying, and I'd just rather toothpaste didn't contain this stuff. I get aggravated having to pay $6 for toothpaste that doesn't have it, just so I don't have to deal with the mouth ulcers.

I wish it was just used in shampoo, etc. It has no business in toothpaste.

To all posting negative comments about SLS: did you guys read that it is non-carcinogenic? I do get if you have skin irritations, or are ingesting it, but it is fine for use in shampoo, conditioners, etc, because those are not designed to be left on the skin, and irritation showed when it was left on the skin for extended periods of time, but it is a lathering agent, which would irritate skin if left on too long. it's a safe synthetic, people!

Barbasol shaving cream contains sodium lauryl sulfate as well. I'll use soap from now on.

Bayer aspirin contains sodium laurel sulfate, as well. Time we took matters into our own hands and end the slow-kill now. There is no aspirin on the market without this inactive ingredient. If you know of one, well then say so, please. Liquid hand soap has it, but Dial glycerin soap does not.

Manufacturers: overwhelmingly from China! Do a search.

As well as Penta Manufacturing, who claim to make Kosher products! More like Nazi slow-kill products. This is anything but kosher.

Celebrex and Macrobid (nitrofurantoin) contain SLS.

I was prescribed iron tablets for anaemia and have been taking them for a year. Only recently I noticed the list of ingredients and was horrified to see that the tablets contain sodium lauryl sulfate.

I asked the pharmacist if I could look at alternative iron tablets and each one she showed me also contained it. For years I have avoided this chemical by not using skin care products or shampoos where it is present. Now I have found out that I have, unknowingly, been ingesting it for years. I cannot understand why a cleaning agent and foaming agent needs to be put into tablets.

I have been known to get mouth ulcers, so I have to be very careful about my toothpaste, since SLS seems to trigger them.

I have found that using Rembrandt toothpaste for canker sores (mouth ulcers) really, really helps me. According to the website, the canker sore formula is SLS free. When I use it, I don't get the mouth ulcers. Highly recommended.

Ugh! I took Advil and got like, five of worst mouth ulcers imaginable! Plus the fact I only weigh like 69 pounds(I'm 11). I'm too scared to take it for fear of an overdose.

The people who put SLS in stuff are idiots! What are they trying to do? Kill us? Exterminate the human race?

They must, because that's what they're doing.

Advil does contain SLS. it's listed on the label and on their website. when i take Advil i get a severe rash and itching all over my arms. when i use shampoos with SLS my scalp breaks out with an itchy rash.

SLS is in toothpaste and even brands that market themselves as "natural" so read labels. the manufacturers of SLS must have a powerful lobby with many industries including pharmaceuticals.

Is sodium lauryl sulfate known by any other name? I have extremely painful, cracked skin on my fingers, which bleed. Another article that I read suggested that sls in various products could be the underlying cause.

So, I checked my shampoo, hair conditioner, hand lotions, shower gel, etc. and none of them had sls listed in the ingredients. Since it is so widely used in these types of products, I'm thinking it must be listed under an alias. Does anyone know?

I also found SLS in a Kirkland vitamin brand from Costco!

I'm 47 and recently saw my local GP about some dizziness and nausea I was experiencing. He prescribed Stremzine 5 mg x 3 times daily. Seeing how I have used this medical centre, and the nearby chemist, I usually feel very safe when they ask me if I want a 'cheaper brand.' it's a small community, same staff for yonks etc. They know I have asthma! They know I have crohn's! So why the hell would they give me something with SLS in it?

If anyone would like to know the long-term effects of SLS, I welcome you to read on. I speak from personal experience. At the beginning of 2010, I wound up in the ER with uncontrollable vomiting. It was not food poisoning, but the doctors were not sure what was causing it. A month prior, I had just started a new medication. I decided to call the FDA and they advised me to look up the ingredients of the medications I was taking online. Well, I did. The one thing that all of the medications I was taking had in common was SLS.

Several months later, when thinking about a health problem that I had following six IVF treatments, it occurred to me to look up the vaginal progesterone that I had been prescribed, and I found out that it too, contained SLS. I was furious. I have since stopped all medications and have been feeling a thousand times better.

One thing I did not mention was the fact that I had to take massive amounts of acid reflux medications over the 10-year period that I was taking the different medications containing SLS. Since stopping all of those meds, I have not had to take any acid reflux meds. Coincidence? I don't think so. Think about that for a moment. I have since done a lot of research on SLS and I am horrified at the amount every human being is exposed to on a daily basis. Not only is it in medications, it is also in our food supply (and not readily obvious). The fact that this is allowed is heinous!

Bottom line: live consciously. Read every label and make better choices. That is the only way to get the message across, that we will not sit back and allow this. When at all possible, stop buying the products that use SLS as an ingredient.

P.S. I do not work for any company that sells natural products and I do not have anything to gain or any hidden agenda. I'm just a concerned citizen looking out for my own health and in doing so, hope I enlighten someone else enough to convince them to make better decisions when it comes to their own health. Don't just exist, live well!

Like everything else that is studied, tested or examined, it supposedly causes all these deadly problems, but interestingly enough, the human race is still here.

I find it even more interesting that on all of these pages that tout the evils of these chemicals, they have convenient links to other pages that sell all the various overpriced "natural" products.

People are easily duped. I'm not saying either side is right or wrong, I'm just saying people need to stop being so freaking paranoid already.

SLS is also in a fiber source called Citrucel, tablets. Label says, smart fiber?

The doctor prescribed me calcium citrate with vit D and after a few days i developed a swelling on my eyes. When i checked the ingredients of the RX i saw the word sulfate.

Because I am allergic to sulfa i checked in my computer and i found the information about this ingredient. I know now that the lauryl sulfate is the reason for my face being swollen. Why does the FDA let the pharmaceutical companies kill people?

My mother is taking Levothyroxine for her thyroid and I have been checking its side effects. One of the inactive ingredients is "sodium lauryl sulfate", among others. My mother's health is very bad. She says her legs and hands feel dead. No wonder. The Journal of American College of Toxicology, Vol.2,#7, 1983 "Has a degenerative effect on the cell membrane because of its protein denaturing properties." My mother can only stand for a few moments. This is very sad.

I have been avoiding SLS for some time now - much to my daughter's irritation (she's 15 and wants to use all those products her friends use). However, I have a slightly different attitude from the above article. There are plenty of chemicals (both natural and man-made) that are extremely powerful and damaging if used in concentration that we use every day without thought so the fact that SLS is one of those chemicals is not reason enough to avoid it.

I always check the ingredients of anything taken internally and I have never come across medication with SLS in, so I'm guessing that the above posters are from the USA? So I think in Britain we must have regulations preventing it.

The two things that concern me are the synergistic effects. I have no idea what items in my bathroom have nitrogen in them, and the accumulative effects. Could someone enlighten me?

Sarah - a less wise geek

Killing viruses just creates super-bacteria and super-viruses that shall soon be immune to everything we have to throw at them.

SLS is in Clorox's Green Works® products - scary!

FYI: a brand of aspirin or acetylsalicylic acid called Truly contains sodium lauryl sulfate. Read the ingredients. --Linda

"Why on earth would the pharmaceutical industry put a detergent in a medication?" because they want to kill you? and because they want your money?

Here's a good one. My 8 year old son takes a generic Zyrtec (Cetirizine Hydrochloride)for allergies which we buy from the pharmacy. It is less expensive than the over the counter generics.

This last time we got a bottle and I noticed that this was from a different manufacturer than all of the previous bottles we've had.

He started developing a rash around his mouth, which ended up looking like a burn-at the same time he really was having asthma flare ups.

I wasn't sure what was up-- I thought maybe he had eaten something over the holidays or his body was just run down and was having trouble fighting the allergens off.

Going over all the "what's so different" possibilities, I remembered that the medication was different. I checked the bottle and saw SLS in the inactive ingredient list!

Why on earth would a drug manufacturer put an ingredient which is known to cause skin rashes and compromise organ tissues in an allergy medication?!! Hello! Talk about stupid!

The risk is not worth it. purchase a brand name instead of generic medicine because it is where you will find most Sodium lauryl sulfate as a filler. So people, generic drugs are not always the same.

I am sure it kills viruses, seriously.

We are importing Aspirin BP 75 mg dispersible tablet manufactured by Hamold Ltd. (the name of the company is "Care" to be used by the general public (procured by the public sector).

This product contains sodium lauryl sulfate. Since thousands of people are chronically using this product, I really am concerned about the danger this chemical may impart on the health of those people.

We all know that this chemical may pose great problems when used in skin care products including shampoos and hair products. What would we expect if it is taken internally (systemically)?

I know very well since I was a student in the school of pharmacy (mid eighties) that sodium lauryl sulfate as a surfactant should only be reserved for external use and now scientists are telling us not to use even in external products. I know why manufacturers are including it in a dispersible tablet, but is it worth it if we jeopardize people's health?

A concerned pharmacist

I read the non-medicinal ingredients in the medication Advil, and found that it contains sodium lauryl sulfate. I was taking Advil for a headache over a few days and developed a stomach ulcer which took a long time to heal. Why on earth would the pharmaceutical industry put a detergent in a medication?