By Sarah Villafranco, MD

The ponds of Wellfleet are more than just places to cool off in the summer—they’re delicate ecosystems teeming with life, and they deserve our respect and protection. Every product we use in our homes and on our bodies eventually finds its way into the water, especially in this area where many homes rely on septic systems or even older cesspools. Even swimming in the ponds without rinsing off first can introduce chemicals that disrupt these fragile environments.

Most conventional personal and home care products contain ingredients that are potentially harmful to our beloved ponds. These include parabens, phthalates, ethoxylated compounds (such as PEGs), synthetic fragrances, and preservatives like formaldehyde-releasing agents. Two of the most common ingredients you’ll find are sodium lauryl/laureth sulfate (a foaming agent in shampoos, toothpastes, body washes, and almost all laundry detergents), and synthetic fragrance (present in almost every single home and personal care product, and listed as “fragrance” or “parfum” on labels). Unless you’ve made an effort to eliminate these ingredients, they are in your products.

Even brands that seem natural or clean often contain these ingredients, and people are surprised to learn that the brand they chose in good faith is nowhere near as healthy as they were led to believe by the brand’s label and/or marketing.

The ingredients mentioned above may persist in the environment and harm aquatic life. Some act as endocrine disruptors, altering reproductive and developmental patterns in fish, amphibians, and other creatures. Others accumulate in sediment or interfere with the natural microbiome of the water, impacting everything from algae to insects to the birds that feed on them.

But this isn’t just about the frogs and dragonflies. Because our skin is permeable, many of the chemicals in personal care products are absorbed into our bodies. And when we rinse them off in the shower or wash them down the drain, our septic systems can’t fully break them down—so they often find their way into the soil and ponds, where they may eventually cycle back to us in addition to harming the creatures.

It’s possible—and necessary—to care for ourselves and our homes without compromising the health of these sacred ponds. The following provides tips for choosing pond-safe products.

Pond-Safe Outdoor Shower Products — Choose unscented or naturally scented products made without synthetic preservatives, fragrances, or sulfates.  Also, a natural body oil used on wet skin can replace lotions, which often contain parabens, ethoxylated ingredients like phenoxyethanol, and synthetic fragrance.

Pond-Safe Laundry Products — Laundry runoff can introduce significant chemical loads into the ground, and almost every brand on the market contains sodium lauryl/laureth sulfate and fragrance, as well as alcohol ethoxylates, which are often found in laundry sheets and can release 1,4-dioxane into the soil and water. Best to skip the synthetic fragrance, ethoxylates, and questionable surfactants**.**

Pond-Safe Home Cleaning and Kitchen Products — What we clean our homes with may end up in our food, the soil, and eventually the ponds. Look for unscented brands that are phosphate-free and bio-degradeable, and do not include ammonia, chlorinated compounds, petroleum-based solvents, anti-bacterial agents, ethoxylates, or nonylphenol.

Pond-Safe Sunscreens — Opt for mineral-based sunscreens with zinc oxide or titanium dioxide—not the most commonly used ones which contain harmful-to-aquatic-life chemical filters like oxybenzone or octinoxate.

Pond-Safe Bug Sprays.  Cape Cod is a very high-risk area for tick-borne illnesses like Lyme disease, babesiosis, and anaplasmosis, so protecting yourself from tick bites is essential. Many conventional bug sprays contain DEET, which can be harsh on the skin and harmful to aquatic life, and synthetic fragrance. Picaridin is a gentler, effective alternative that doesn’t carry the same toxicity risks for people or the environment. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO), both picaridin (20%) and DEET (20–30%) offer comparable protection against ticks and mosquitoes, but picaradin is tolerated better by people with sensitive skin and has lower risk of environmental toxicity compared to DEET.

You don’t have to replace everything overnight. Do your own research and start with what you use most often—or what washes directly into the environment, like shampoo, soap, body wash, and sunscreen. Every small shift you can make helps reduce the cumulative chemical load on the ponds, the creatures who live there, and the people who treasure them.

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Note from Friends of Wellfleet Ponds:  For additional help in selecting Pond-Safe Products, consider the Detox Me mobile app created by the Silent Spring Institute