Join the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics

Here's a fun fact:  How many chemicals do you think have been banned from cosmetics in the European Union?  1,100!  How many in the good 'ol United States?  9.  That's right.  Nine!  I promise you this is not because our country chooses on it's own to produce safer cosmetics.  Nope.  Instead it's because major loopholes in federal law prevent the FDA from reviewing the safety of cosmetics before they can be sold.  That's right.  Unsafe products can only be pulled from the shelf if *you* (the consumer) can prove them to be toxic...and that's after being sold to (and used by) millions.

Another fun fact:  Number of ingredients in personal care products in the U.S.: 10,500.  Percentage tested for health and safety?  11%

Why care?  Think for a minute about the stuff you use every day: shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, lotion, make up, nail polish - most of which you've been using for most of your life, right?  Turns out many of these things are made with synthetic (and harmful!) ingredients that we put directly on our skin or in our bodies.  Ingredients that build up over a lifetime of use.

Things like:

• mercury (eye drops and ointments),
• lead (found in almost all lipstick)
• formaldehyde (nail polish)
• toluene (nail polish)
• petroleum distillates (mascara, perfume, foundation, lipstick, lip balm)
• ethylacrylate (mascara)
• coal tar (anti-itch creams, dandruff shampoos, hair dyes)
• dibutyl phthalate (nail polish, perfume, hair spray)

And the list goes on and on....

The makers of our products aren't thinking so much about our health, they're thinking instead about marketing, cheap manufacturing and long shelf lives.  The synthetic ingredients added to these products show up in our bodies, our breast milk, and our children.  Some have been linked to cancer, birth defects, learning disabilities and other major health problems.  For the others, that link is likely to reveal itself in only a matter of time.

What can you do?

1) Take action: Join the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics in asking major cosmetics manufacturers to cut toxic chemicals from their products. 

2) Be informed: Check out EWG's Skin Deep Database to learn more about the chemicals in the products you use every day.  And support EWG in their efforts to push for tougher laws regulating the chemical industry too. 

3) Shop smarter:  You'd have to be a chemist to understand the labels on most our products - or to pick out the things you should be avoiding.  And, unfortunately, just because something says it's "natural", "organic" or "pure" doesn't mean it is.  Unlike with our food, in cosmetics there are *no* regulations monitoring that. 

Luckily, we have many shops in town that sell only non-toxic products.  My favorite in Portland is Camellia Pure Beauty on NE 48th & Fremont (they also have an online shop for anyone who lives outside Portland).  Owners of shops like these stock many local products, and all are safe.  Plus they're a wealth of good information about other ways to to shop safely. 

Comments

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[Andrea P]

Nope, Camellia didn't close, just moved 2 blocks West. It's now on 48th.

[LTF]

Andrea, Did Camelia close? I thought I saw an empty storefront recently.... Lisa

[Angi G]

It is so frustrating to me that we have to worry about the safety of everything we buy for us and our families from our shampoo to our food, nothing is safe!! Our government definitely needs to regulate the toxic chemicals that make it into our home.

Activistas may be interested in Seventh Generation's campaign to reform the 33 year-old Toxic Chemical Substances Act, the Million Baby Crawl. Go to http://www.seventhgeneration.com/million-baby-crawl/ for more info.