|
 Most
personal care and beauty product consumers would be slightly unnerved
to find that the government doesn't require any mandatory testing
for these products before they hit store shelves. As a matter of
fact, a government agency found out that cosmetic manufacturers
could use just about any raw materials in their products and then
put them on the market without needing approval by the FDA.
The lack of government involvement has led to companies who manufacture
these types of products to not adhere to any testing standards and
market products that are considered to cause potentially damaging
health risks.
A six-month computer investigation evaluated the safety of over
10,000 personal care product ingredients and included 2,300 people.
The investigation revealed the following information on personal
care use:
-
Each day, the average adult uses nine personal care products
that contain 126 different chemical ingredients
-
Over a quarter of a million women and one out of every 100
men use on the average of 15 products a day
Findings From the Personal Care Safety
Assessment
-
Only 28 of the 7,500 products in the study were completely
tested by the cosmetic industry's self-regulating panel
-
An astounding one-third of all the products assessed contained
at least one ingredient that fell under the classification of
human carcinogen
-
71 percent of the hair dye products evaluated had carcinogenic
coal tar as part of their ingredients
-
Almost 70 percent of the products reviewed were found to have
ingredients that could be tainted with impurities related to
cancer and other health complications
-
54 percent of the products violated the safety recommendations
proposed by the self-regulating Cosmetic Ingredient Review Board.
Some examples of the unsafe ingredients in these products were
discovered in diaper cream, products on the market for damaged
skin such as chapped skin and other ingredients found in spray
products
-
Over the course of keeping watch over the cosmetic industry,
the FDA has banned a mere nine personal care products
Based on these findings, researchers agreed that the lack of monitoring
by the FDA has led to a huge leniency toward the testing of cosmetic
ingredients and has resulted in a large portion of products available
on the market that pose health risks to the consumers.
Recommendations to Cosmetic Manufacturers
by the Environmental Working Group
-
Take out all possible cancer carcinogens and other developmental
toxins from products
-
Ensure that ingredients are certified and free of impurities
with known possible human carcinogens or developmental toxins
-
Eliminate any ingredients that qualify as harmful or unsafe
Environmental
Working Group June 2004
| 