Consumers & Youth Look at Toxic Chemicals in Conventional Cosmetics & Body Care Products

The Argus - (Fremont, California)
<http://www.insidebayarea.com/argus/localnews/ci_2921531>

08/07/2005

Youth raise awareness of cosmetic chemicals

By Momo Chang, STAFF WRITER

One by one, the 20 teenagers take beauty products from their backpacks and
purses: chapstick, sunblock, scented lotion, eyeliner, mascara and
deodorant.

Joanna Chung, 15, counts more than 12 products she uses every day, from
shampoo and conditioner to moisturizer and lip gloss. She gets her hair dyed
about four times a year < by her mom, who is a hair colorist < and plans on
getting blond highlights before school starts, where she will be a junior at
San Leandro High School.

Joanna and her peers are a part of Sisters in Action for Reproductive
Empowerment, or SAFIRE, a group for young Asian-American women that began
meeting this summer as part of Oakland-based Asian Communities for
Reproductive Justice where they are examining chemical ingredients used in
cosmetics.

Many are surprised to learn the products they use every day could contain
toxic ingredients. "I didn't know that most of the products have chemicals
inside that could affect my body," said Joanna.

The cosmetic products they are examining are in a gray area < not food we
eat nor the air we breathe. They are products most people use every day, but
the FDA does not have authority to regulate cosmetic products.

ACRJ's toxins and cosmetics project fits in with a larger effort in the Bay
Area and across the country attempting to address such regulation.

"People might assume that everything they buy at the store is safe," said
Judi Shils, founder of the Marin Cancer Project.

Her group started organizing teenagers in Marin County and recently
convened a safe cosmetics summit, bringing together a group of like-minded
people, including policy-makers and cosmetic company representatives
interested in making safer products.

Shils said the good thing about cosmetics safety is that alternative
products exist, and unlike the many other toxins in the environment, is
something consumers can control. "You can make changes overnight," she said.

Cosmetic industry representatives said their cosmetics are safe.

"That is what we strive to do every day, to make sure that we provide
products that are safe," said Randy Pollack, lobbyist for the Cosmetic,
Toiletry and Fragrance Association.

On the legislative end, a bill by state Sen. Carole Migden, D-San
Francisco, would require cosmetic companies to disclose any hazardous
ingredients used in cosmetics products sold in California. Senate Bill 484
does not ban any ingredients, nor does it require any labeling, but is seen
as a step in the right direction by safe cosmetics advocates.

Migden's bill has faced a lot of opposition from the $35 billion cosmetics
industry, particularly from the CTFA, which spent $550,000 in 2004
successfully lobbying against legislation that would have banned a group of
chemical compounds called phthalates, found in nail polish, moisturizer,
hairspray and other products.

The industry relies on the Cosmetic Ingredient Review, a self-regulatory
body funded by the industry, but only about 10 percent of the ingredients
used on products sold on the market have been tested, according to safe
cosmetics advocates.

'Fragrance' and 'other ingredients' and 'flavoring' < that's where you can
hide a lot of harmful ingredients," said Gretchen Lee of San Francisco-based
Breast Cancer Fund. She said this is a loophole that companies take
advantage of because, for example, the formula for a certain fragrance is
considered a trade secret.

Ingredients such as formaldehyde, di-ehthyl-hexyl phthalate, coal tar, and
toluene and have been deemed by a state agency to cause cancer or
reproductive harm, such as birth defects. Yet these same ingredients can
still be found in products sold on the shelf, albeit in small amounts < in
moisturizer, shampoo, nail polish, and other cosmetics because no state or
federal agency regulates how chemicals are used in cosmetic products.

According to a study conducted by the Environmental Working Group, based in
Washington, D.C., over one third of cosmetic products they surveyed
contained at least one ingredient listed as a possible carcinogen.

Industry officials, however, say that these chemicals would require a very
large intake to cause any harm.

Just because you have a trace amount of something in the product, doesn't
mean it is harmful," said Pollack. He said that there have been
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no studies done to show that using several cosmetic products a day over an
extended period of time causes any harm, but others contend that trace
amounts of toxic ingredients could add up.

The little bit in my moisturizer, combined with the little bit in my
eyeshadow really adds up over the course of 50 years," said Lee. "We
shouldn't wait for 100 percent definitive proof that these ingredients are
carcinogens. That could take 40-50 years."

Unlike other environmental toxins, consumers can choose to buy safer
products, but currently, that would require a lot of label-reading, often in
microscopic type.

One idea proposed at the cosmetics summit is a universal logo, along the
lines of the "USDA approved organics" label, that could be placed on
products that are truly safe.

For some, the issue of safe cosmetics concern goes beyond the consumer
level.

Our concern is more about the Vietnamese nail salon worker population that
we've outreached to ," said Julia Liou of Oakland-based Asian Health
Services, a supporter of Migden's bill. "They work with these products on a
daily basis, and their exposure is much higher than the consumer
population."

There are 83,000 licensed manicurists in California and 80 percent are of
Vietnamese descent. Liou said that many are recent immigrants and most are
women of child-bearing age.

"Beautiful," Healthy," and "Attractive" are all words that Judy Le, 19, has
written on a large piece of white paper in ACRJ's small office in Oakland's
Chinatown. These are adjectives that, perhaps, all young women want to
associate with. They are words they think of after looking at a shampoo ad
when they are asked, "how is this product supposed to make you feel?"

Next to the column of adjectives, she has written "creates irritation,"
"toxic," and "bad for body," words that describe possible effects of some of
the products the group is examining. They are looking closely at an Herbal
Essence shampoo ad that more than half of the teenagers said they used. The
ad says the product is "a totally organic experience."

Le has worked with ACRJ for six years and has nine cousins working in hair
or nail salons. She has one more year to go in her classes at Sacramento
City College before she will take the state's cosmetology board exams. She
will be certified to practice either as a nail technician or hair stylist.

For her, learning about cosmetics safety is more than just an activity to
do in the summer. If she works as a stylist or manicurist, it could affect
her. In a big way.

Carcinogens in personal care products

Chemical ingredients found in personal care products that are linked to
cancer or cause reproductive harm, including birth defects, according to the
state's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment under California's
Environmental Protection Agency:

-Coal tar < is a carcinogen and contains a number of toxic substances such
as napthalene and benzopyrene. Coal tar may be found in shampoos and hair
dyes.

-Formaldehyde < is a carcinogen and is a disinfectant found in nail polish,
deodorant, soaps, shampoo and shaving cream.

-Phthalates < Di-exyl-hexyl phthalate, DEHP, is a carcinogen; di-butyl
phthalate has been linked to birth defects in the male reproductive system
and is currently under consideration to be added to the Prop. 65 list; can
be found in nail polish, deodorant, fragrance, hairspray, lotions.

-Propylene glycol mono-t-butyl < is a carcinogen that is found in nail
polish and other products.

-Toluene < causes birth defects or other reproductive harm, found mainly in
nail polish and hair dye.