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Toxic Cosmetics
Industry giants are still ignoring you and their participation in cleaning up their
products as demonstrated by their interests in your overall health. New
laws increase the pressure, but who would want to do business with them
after they spent hundreds of years poisoning you?
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Potential toxic cosmetics have some people worried
13 March 2007 - By ABIGAIL LEICHMAN -
northjersey.com
In the 1930s, several women's eyes were damaged or
blinded by Lash Lure, a coal-tar-based mascara. So in 1938, Congress
passed the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act regulating chemical colorants.
Today, those FD&C dyes remain the only cosmetic ingredients regulated
by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It has banned nine others
after investigating consumer complaints.
"If we had to approve every cosmetic, it would be mind-boggling," said
Joan Lytle of the agency's North Brunswick office. "Cosmetics firms
are responsible for substantiating their claims."
How well do they do that job? In the past 30 years, the industry's
Cosmetic Ingredient Review Panel has completed studies on just 10
percent of some 10,500 synthetic, multisyllabic ingredients in
products sold to us so we can cleanse, beautify and deodorize. That
leaves many question marks about the products' effectiveness
and safety.
"Many of us were brought up on the slogan 'Better living through
chemistry,' but now there is more interest in the ingredients we're
putting on our faces," said Elizabeth "Lily" Cohill, 48, the founder
of Lily Organics of Colorado. "Why would you want to rub on toxic
chemicals when you could use olive oil?"
It depends how you define "toxic." Consumer advocate Paula Begoun
argues in "Don't Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me" that it's
"completely far-fetched" to assume every man-made ingredient is bad
for skin.
"The list of what to avoid cannot be generalized," said dermatologist
Dr. Leslie Baumann, author of "The Skin Type Solution" (Bantam, 2007)
and medical adviser to 35 companies, including Johnson & Johnson,
Neutrogena, Avon and Allergan.
"Once you know ... if you are sensitive or not, you will be able to
find products that work for you without causing problems," Baumann
said.
However, "problems" may go deeper than what you see in the
mirror, given that skin is absorbent.
About one of every 100 personal-care products contains known or
possible carcinogens, claims the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a
watchdog organization in Washington, D.C. "The vast majority of
decisions the industry's safety panel makes are based on allergy and
skin irritation," said Jane Houlihan, vice president for research at
EWG. "They are not considering long-term chronic effects."
A coalition of health and environmental groups, including the EWG and
the Breast Cancer Fund, is working with manufacturers to eliminate or
reformulate chemical ingredients suspected of hazards as mild as skin
irritation and as serious as cancer, genetic mutation and nerve
damage.
Almost 500 companies have so far signed on with the Campaign for Safe
Cosmetics. Industry giants such as L'Oreal, Revlon, Estee Lauder,
Avon, Unilever and Procter & Gamble have not.
Last year, the EWG persuaded the FDA to crack down on companies that
are violating a law requiring a safety warning on cosmetics containing
untested ingredients -- usually, artificial preservatives or
fragrances.
But testing is expensive and often involves controversial animal
studies. It's simpler to dodge the issue with marketing strategies --
like adding and emphasizing a single botanical ingredient in a sea of
otherwise tiny type. |
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Comment: This tiny elements are sometimes
capable of remaining in your body for life, and now with nano tech,
they are small enough to go places they've never been before.
Even if you bother reading that hard-to-see list, "Cosmetics companies
are ... abbreviating or changing the names of ingredients so you don't
know what they really are," said Paula Conway, co-author of "The
Beauty Buyble" (HarperCollins, 2006)."Sodium lauryl sulfate, a common
ingredient that causes shampoo, toothpaste and soap to foam, can be
very damaging to the skin, especially to the eyes. But if you just put
'SLS' in the ingredient list, no one will know that's what it is,"
Conway said. |
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Comment: SLS can irritate the eyes but is
not consider that dangerous compared to many other chemical
concoctions used. It depends of how the SLS is made, is it plant
based, or synthetic? Plant based is much milder, and synthetic more
damaging.
Some potentially harmful ingredients aren't listed at all. Phthalates,
linked to reproductive damage, are a common hidden element of
fragrances in body lotions, hair sprays, perfumes and deodorants,
according to the most recent issue of Consumer Reports' ShopSmart
magazine. It recommends using perfume no more than every other day and
seeking out unscented personal-care items.
Label phrases like "dermatologist tested," "all natural" and
"hypoallergenic" don't mean much, warns the FDA. Ditto for the word
"Dr." in a brand name.
Concerns about conventional cosmetics are to thank for an increase in
mass-marketed organic and/or plant-based personal-care products, a
category that only recently consisted of not much beyond the Tom's of
Maine brand -- which also is growing.
Most are small manufacturers. Kena Sage mixes up perfumes and body
lotions at a Hackensack lab and sells them at a Teaneck hair salon
under the Cowrie Flowers brand. Almond and jojoba oils, rose water,
lavender and rosemary, shea butter and Dead Sea salts are among the
few ingredients she puts in the products.
Consumer advocate Begoun cautions that some plant extracts,
particularly fragrant ones like peppermint, lemon, camphor and
menthol, "are inherently potent sources of skin problems." The main
issue with botanically based products, however, is a much shorter
shelf life because they lack the chemical preservatives that raise
concerns in conventional brands. Cohill and Sage say they have worked
hard to find natural preservatives -- Sage is experimenting with vodka
-- to push shelf life to six months or a year.
"We need to get over the attitude that everything needs to last
forever," said Cohill. "An average product will look the same for
about 20 years, and ... they're achieving that by using
[preservatives] that release formaldehyde."
Houlihan said she has stopped using entire categories of products she
believes to be high-risk. "I don't wear lipstick anymore, because you
ingest it. And I've stopped using nail polish and coloring my hair."
The good news? "Manufacturers change about a third of their product
formulations every year," Houlihan said.
It pays to keep reading labels on favorite brands, even if you need a
magnifying glass and a dictionary to do so.
E-mail: leichman@northjersey.com |
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