Baby toys from China aren’t the only products on the shelves with hidden dangers. Shampoos, lotions and deodorants manufactured right here in the USA contain chemicals that are suspected of contributing to cancer or reproductive harm. What is the beauty industry’s response to the growing concerns? Hire lobbyists and launch a PR campaign to convince you their products are safe.

But a closer look at common industry talking points reveals some not-so-artful airbrushing over the toxic truth. Here are the industry’s top five pretzel-logic reasons for using hazardous chemicals:

1. Toxic chemicals are just like salt.

According to John Bailey, chief spokesman for the US cosmetics industry, hazardous chemicals can be compared to salt in cooking – small amounts are fine. “A little salt on your peas or tomatoes can be good. But a lot of salt can have adverse health effects on your blood pressure, and too much can be fatal,” Bailey explained to the New York Times.

A week before the Times story appeared, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics reported finding 1,4 dioxane — a probable human carcinogen — in popular brands of baby shampoo and bubble bath.

Carcinogens on the baby’s head are like salt on your peas? Mixtures of industrial chemicals with various toxic properties in unknown quantities (and often not listed on labels) are not much at all like salt.

2. Toxic chemicals in cosmetics are like caged tigers.

This pearl of wisdom comes from Proctor & Gamble toxicologist Tim Long, as quoted in Mark Schapiro’s excellent new book, “Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What’s at Stake for American Power.“

“Imagine you encounter a tiger in the wild, and then encounter another tiger behind its protective enclosure in a zoo,” Long said. The wild tiger is inherently dangerous, but a tiger behind bars is not dangerous at all. “It’s the same thing in products. There may be inherent toxicity to a particular chemical, but if you use it under certain conditions the exposure is minimal and they present no risk.”

This unsettling parable takes us to the heart of the industry’s reasoning: a little bit of toxic chemicals in this product and that product (and the dozen other products we use in the same day) will sit innocently in cages without escaping and putting us in mortal danger. Thanks, but I’d rather not have flesh-eating tigers in cages all over my bathroom sink.

3. Parabens aren’t as potent as birth control pills.

“The potency of parabens in products such as deodorants is a million times lower than in the birth control pill and that is considered safe,” Dr. Christopher Flower of the industry trade association told the Daily Mail.

Comparing a widely used cosmetic ingredient to a sterilizing pharmaceutical drug doesn’t seem like the smartest angle. But then, it is true that parabens – the most commonly used preservative in beauty products – are estrogenic and can disrupt hormones, and therefore have the potential to interfere with normal bodily functions such as, say, breast development or reproduction.

The amount of parabens in any one product may be low – or maybe not; there’s no way to know since companies don’t have to disclose ingredient concentrations. And unfortunately, most brands contain parabens, so consumers are dosed with estrogenic parabens multiple times a day, every day.

4. We can’t live in a lead free world.

In its statement called “Rumor: Lead and Cosmetics,” the cosmetics industry explains that, “It is impossible to live in a lead free world … Compared to the amount of lead a person would ingest from eating and drinking ordinary foods, the amount expected from the use of cosmetics would be extremely small.”

Why should we expect any amount of lead to be in cosmetics? It may be impossible to live in a lead free world, but is it really impossible to keep the lead out of lipstick? You’d think companies that claim to have the power to erase years from our lives could figure out how to make products without chemicals linked to brain damage.

5. The FDA is protecting consumers, so there’s no need to worry.

“Certainly within the cosmetics law, there are sufficient checks and balances that will ensure that products and their ingredients are safe,” John Bailey from the trade association told National Public Radio.

Sufficient checks and balances? Where? FDA has no authority to require companies to safety test their ingredients and no power to require recalls of unsafe products, according to the agency’s own website. Cosmetics are the least regulated products at FDA. Instead of government oversight, cosmetics companies in the US get to decide for themselves what’s safe (see The High Price of Beauty by Virginia Sole-Smith.)

Cosmetics are safe? Just trust us, say the pretzel-logic weilding tiger tamers.