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Welcome to the Safe Cosmetics Action Center.
Here you'll find alerts, tools and information you need to take action for safe health and beauty products.
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Why Is Estee "Pink Ribbon" Lauder Still Using Chemicals Linked to Cancer?
The cosmetic giant Estee Lauder owns Origins, Aveda and MAC, among many other popular brands. Interestingly though, Estee Lauder brands each have different standards when it comes to protecting consumers’ health, including different ideas about using chemicals linked to cancer and other diseases in products.
The number of studies linking cosmetics chemicals to reproductive health problems and cancer has been increasing for years, but many large cosmetics companies have been slow (or downright obstinate) about reformulating their products, claiming that small amounts of these chemicals are just fine. Estee Lauder even lobbied against legislation in California that requires cosmetics companies to notify the state when they use chemicals linked to cancer and birth defects--while simultaneously launching Pink Ribbon campaigns to “raise awareness” about breast cancer.
We'd like to raise another kind of awareness: small, repeated exposures to these chemicals can affect our health, and they shouldn't be in our cosmetics.
Aveda and Origins are Estee’s “greener” brands, and Origins recently made an important public commitment to make safer products.
If Aveda and Origins can deliver, why can't the rest of Estee Lauder’s brands?
This October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, ask Estee "Pink Ribbon" Lauder to extend the Aveda and Origins pledges to all of its brands, from MAC to Clinique to Bumble and Bumble. This company can make cosmetics free of known and suspected toxins, and in the absence of laws that protect us, we have to demand that protection ourselves.
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Men's Products Should Be Safe, Too
Don't think men use cosmetics? Think again. Aftershave, shampoo and cologne are cosmetics. And just like personal care products marketed to women and kids, men's products are not regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or any other government agency. As a result, they often contain chemicals linked to serious health problems. Look, for example, at safety ratings for men's fragrances and aftershaves, including well-known brands Calvin Klein, Burberry and Stetson.
It's perfectly legal for many of the products men use daily to contain chemicals with health risks, chemicals that have never been tested for safety, or chemicals that are not on product labels. Among the troubling products in men's bathrooms:
• Just for Men hair color gel for facial hair contains P-phenylenediamine, which even the industry-funded Cosmetics Ingredient Review board – a panel that's allowed to make safety determinations because the FDA isn't – classifies as a known skin toxicant, and yet also finds the ingredient safe to use in cosmetics.
• Everyday products like Gillette shave gel and Head & Shoulders shampoo contain ingredients linked to cancer, hormone disruption and nervous system effects.
It's time for Congress to empower the FDA to regulate the cosmetics industry so that products marketed to men (and everyone else) are free of unsafe and untested ingredients. We want this $50 billion cosmetics industry to be honest about what's in products, and required to make products safe before they hit store shelves.
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Ask Avon, "The Company for Women," to Protect Mom's Health!
Mom is ageless, but should she wish to pamper her skin we want her lotions and potions to be safe.
Avon's Mother's Day gift bag contains two creams, ANEW Alternative Intensive Age Treatment SPF 25 and ANEW Alternative Intensive Eye Cream. We cross-referenced these products ingredients with the Skin Deep cosmetics safety database and found that if Mom were to use both of these creams, she would be exposed to:
• diazolidinyl urea (which may be derived from urine and contaminated with formaldehyde, a cancer-causing chemical);
• propylene glycol (an ingredient with strong contamination concerns);
• oxybenzone (dangers associated with enhanced skin penetration; linked to cancer, hormone disruption);
• undisclosed ingredients in "fragrance" (may include phthalates, linked to birth defects and cancer);
• four different parabens (which have been found in breast tumors and linked to endocrine disruption); and
• dozens of other ingredients with health concerns or that have never been tested for safety.
These aren't the only Avon products that we hope mom will avoid. The Skin Deep database contains 356 Avon products, 84 of which score in the highest hazard range (between 7 and 10 on a scale of 1 to 10) due to ingredients linked to cancer, endocrine disruption, developmental or reproductive toxicity, allergies and contamination concerns (impurities linked to cancer, for example).
Why is the "company for women," the company behind the famous Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, putting unsafe and untested ingredients in products moms use every day? If Avon really wants to support women, it should support their long-term health.
Here's the heartening news: On May 1, a full 25 percent of Avon shareholders voted in favor of a resolution that requested the company report on policies regarding potentially dangerous, unlabeled nanomaterials in products. The vote shows that Avon shareholders are open to improvement – so let's push them to make more commitments to women's health!
Ask Avon president Elizabeth Smith to commit to removing known and suspected carcinogens, mutagens and reproductive toxins from all Avon products, and to prohibit unsafe or untested ingredients in Avon products.
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Herbal Essences: A Totally Chemical Experience
Clairol Herbal Essences used to be known for their racy-yet-humorous commercials of women lathering up in the shower, ending with the line “A Totally Organic Experience.” The brand, owned by parent company Proctor & Gamble, has since abandoned this tagline (we can only imagine that people began to question the “organic-ness” of the product).
Herbal Essences is now marketed largely to girls and young women, employing intense fragrances, bright packaging and shampoo and conditioner names like “none of your frizzness” and “drama clean.”
With a name like “Herbal Essences” one might think that these products contain natural ingredients, but the brand uses fragrance, sodium laureth sulfate and other chemicals linked to cancer and reproductive problems in its body wash, shampoo and conditioner.
The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics recommends avoiding products with “fragrance” on the label whenever possible (go for unscented products or those perfumed with only essential oils). Companies are not required to list on product labels any of the chemicals in a fragrance mixture. That means that there could be hundreds of unlabeled neurotoxins, allergens and phthalates — chemicals that have been linked to reproductive harm, early puberty in girls and testicular cancer — in fragranced products like Herbal Essences.
Sodium laureth sulfate is another ingredient to watch out for because it's often contaminated with a carcinogen called 1,4-dioxane, and we did, in fact, find the chemical in a previous formulation of Herbal Essences.
Please tell P&G, makers of Herbal Essences, that you want full disclosure — not ingredients linked to cancer and reproductive harm — in your shampoo!
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Antibacterial Products Aren't Squeaky Clean
Triclosan: It may not be a household word, but there is little to no chance that you haven’t come into direct contact with it in your home--while washing your hands, brushing your teeth or applying deodorant or face cream. Now that cold season is in full effect, the "antibacterial" soaps in which triclosan is often found may seem like a great idea. But hold it right there:
Researchers warn that triclosan, a chemical used as an antimicrobial and preservative, acts as an endocrine disruptor. Exposure to endocrine disruptors can lead to early puberty, serious reproductive issues and breast cancer. Triclosan's hormone-mimicking behavior could also be responsible for harming aquatic wildlife, since this chemical is washed into our waterways.
A 2001 study published in the American Journal of Infection Control found triclosan (or triclocarban, which is very similar and also used as an antibacterial in cosmetics) in 76 percent of liquid soaps and 29 percent of bar soaps on the market. The study also found that there are few documented benefits of triclosan.(1) Given the possibility for microbial resistance, widespread consumer use is worth questioning.
The Skin Deep cosmetic safety database assigns triclosan a hazard rating of 7 (with 10 being the highest hazard rating and 0 the lowest) because of its links to cancer and endocrine disruption, and its ability to irritate organs and bioaccumulate (meaning build up and linger in humans or the ecosystem). Triclosan is restricted for use in Canada and Japan, and the European Union labels it “Irritating to eyes and skin; Dangerous for the environment; Very toxic to aquatic organisms.” Even the FDA showed concern about the use of triclosan in products that are not immediately washed off the skin in a September 2007 letter to Proctor and Gamble.
So why is triclosan in L’Oreal skin cream, Johnson & Johnson's Kids' Hand Soap, Ahava Aftershave and countless other products used daily by men, women and children in the United States?
Because cosmetics companies can use ingredients that cause harm and/or have never been tested, and retailers can sell products that contain these risky ingredients—and it's all legal, according to the U.S. government.
Our advice for cold season: wash your hands frequently with triclosan-free soap and warm water.
Our advice for long-term health: Ask a mega-retailer to help stem the demand for products that contain triclosan. Even if the U.S. FDA has no real power at the moment, Wal-Mart and its huge buying power do. E-mail the company and ask the retailer to add triclosan to the list of hazardous chemicals addressed under its new Business Sustainability plan.
Take it another step: Add your own comments and contact info to the letter, if you feel comfortable doing so, and deliver it to a Wal-Mart near you. Ask to meet with the store manager to hand-deliver the letter, and request that he or she pass the letter on to regional managers.
(1) Perencevich, Wong and Harris. 2001 American Journal of Infection Control v29 n5 pp281-283
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