Campaign for Safe Cosmetics

08May08

Women’s Voices for the Earth (WVE) has run a campaign since 2004 called “Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.“ Every women should be concerned about the chemicals found in cosmetic and personal care products. According to WVE, 89% of the 10,000 chemicals in our products have not undergone safety testing. I haven’t read through all of the information on “The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics” web site but what I’ve read so far is shocking.

Some of the information on the site details the problem with lead in lipstick, phthalates linked to the feminization of boys, products contaminated with 1,4-Dioxane (which includes ingredients such as “PEG,” “polyethylene,” “polyethylene glycol,” “polyoxyethylene,” “-eth-” (such as sodium laureth sulfate), “oxynol” “ceteareth,” or “oleth.”) One article I came across on the Environmental Working Group web site, was really frightening, “Almost Half Of All ‘Natural’ Personal Care Products Contain Known Carcinogen.”  This article illustrates in part what I wrote about in my previous posting about Women’s Voices for the Earth. We can’t be fooled by the words “natural” or organic. A product can be “natural” or organic and still be harmful.

I did a bit of research myself and visited a helpful resource I found once again on the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics site. On the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, I did a search for all personal care products which contained PEG, polyethylene, polyethylene glycol, and/or polyoxyethylene. (I didn’t include sodium laureth sulfate since I’ve read conflicting studies about its actual hazard.) My search results are quite lengthy and once again, shocking. (I hate to keep using this word, but it really is). At the top of the list, L’Oreal, Estee Lauder, and Avon appear multiple times.

We, as women, need to become more educated consumers and purchase products that won’t make us unhealthy or worse yet, sick. I compiled a short list of some companies who make “clean” cosmetics. (By clean I mean they do not use harmful ingredients.)  I plan to sample products from a few of these companies and I’ll let you know what I find. A great thing I found out is The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics “has asked cosmetics and personal care products companies to sign the Compact for Safe Cosmetics (also known as the Compact for the Global Production of Safer Health and Beauty Products), a pledge to remove toxic chemicals and replace them with safer alternatives in every market they serve. As of August 2007, 600 companies have signed the Compact.”

I believe all six companies below have signed the Compact for Safe Cosmetics.

Perfect Organics
Jasco Organics
Naked
Ferro Cosmetics
Everyday Minerals
Sevi

Perhaps most important, is that we educate the next generation of women to find it absolutely unacceptable for personal care and cosmetic products to be unsafe. Below is an excellent video about Teens for Safe Cosmetics. (Note the footnote at the end of the video… what at coincidence — Estee Lauder, L’Oreal and Avon show up here again!)


 

Here are the two “clean” product companies mentioned in the video above:
tweenBeauty
Juice Beauty

Now, excuse me while I go dump my entire cosmetic drawer into the trash…


Filed under: cosmetics, health, women, women's health   |  3 Comments
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3 Responses to “Campaign for Safe Cosmetics”  

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  1. 1 Fashion Sensei on May 26, 2008 said:

    I’m glad to see Earth’s Beauty on this list. I tested several of her products and liked virtually all of them. I was especially happy with the mascara.

    Very interesting post.

    Reply
  2. 2 Shelle R. Kramer on September 15, 2008 said:

    Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and Environmental Working Group came to Los Angeles Sept 11, 2008, and gave a masterful slide show presentation on chemicals in our environment and in our bodies. Information on cleaning up the chemicals in personal care and beauty products and household cleaning products, is our goal. There were over 200 people in attendance, all concerned about our environment and the products we use daily on our bodies and in our homes.

    I am the Director of the Cancer Prevention Coalition for Los Angeles.s We give seminars to the public on awareness of avoidable risks of cancer and illness from environmental toxins. I have been involved with this for the past 1 0 years.

    I am so excited that EWG and CSC came to Los Angeles, and hope to be part of all the seminars they will hold here in Los Angeles.
    For a listing of the cancer prevention coalition seminars visit http://www.healthy-communications.com/cpc.html

    Helthcom@aol.com 310 4575176

    Reply
  3. 3 JBBC on May 16, 2009 said:

    Thank you for highlighting this. As a breast cancer survivor I have grave concerns over the toxic chemical cocktail we as women expose ourselves too. A woman’s lifetime exposure to oestrogen is a known risk factor for getting the disease and many of these harmful chemicals such as parabens minic oestrogen. The problem is that women are not even aware of the link much of the time so we all need to become more informed for the sake of our health. http://beyondbreastcancer.wordpress.com/2009/05/16/because-were-worth-it/

    Reply

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