Grab a bottle, any bottle, and flip er over. On the ingredient list, you are very likely to see cyclopentasiloxane. It’s a sleek, smooth and revolting silicone that makes your hair shine and your foundation go on even and your antiperspirant slip on in a nice thin layer. It’s used in thousands of beauty products, and according to Skin Deep, it rates pretty low on the human-toxics scale. It’s also an evil fish killer, apparently.

Quoting: “Government assessments show [cyclopentasiloxane] could be killing fish and other aquatic life after it washes down the drain and into the water supply.” Nice, right?

And so Canada might be banning it—an effort they’ve had underway for a couple of years already. It’s pretty wild to think about what would happen if Canada succeeded in restricting or banning this stuff. Hopefully, if it happens, the companies that reformulate without cyclopentasiloxane will take it as an opportunity to get smart about ingredients and not just throw in some other chemical we know even less about.

Silicones are on our no-no list, and we hope they’re on yours—if not because they’re gross, then for the fishes.

Cute dead fish by Bellafelice