More than nine out of ten people today live in a polluted atmosphere. Not only the skin, but also the hair and scalp are particularly exposed, especially during urban travel. In a web-conference on 1 April 2020 (the date on which the in-cosmetics Global exhibition should have been held), Marlène De Matos presented an overview of Urban’Hair, Berkem’s new asset against urban pollution.
According to the WHO (World Health Organization), air pollution is the main environmental risk to human health. It affects all age groups, all socio-economic groups, all regions of the world, even if some, such as India, China, Russia… are even more affected than others.
Some sources of pollution come from nature (such as sulphur dioxide from volcanic eruptions), but it is human activities that generate most of it, particularly the metallurgy, petrochemical and coal industries…
Urban pollution is not a marginal problem, since today 50% of the world’s population lives in cities, and it is estimated that this figure will rise to 70% by 2050.
Of course, the coronavirus pandemic and the very sharp economic downturn it has caused has also had the effect of significantly reducing pollution around the world. But it would be difficult to see this as a sustainable, let alone ideal, solution to the problem…. But in ordinary times, pollution is everywhere, in the atmosphere outside as well as inside homes and workplaces, composed of many different and not always easily detectable molecules.
Impacts of pollution on skin and hair
Polluting molecules can easily be deposited on the surface of the skin. They attack the hydrolipidic …
