Organic Salon Systems supports the American Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010
July 27th, 2010 | Published in Articles
Most Americans use about 10 personal care products each day. The toothpaste, shampoo, deodorant, baby powder and other things that we routinely douse or slather on our bodies expose us to at least 100 different chemicals. Many of these, public health experts say, have been linked to adverse health effects like cancer, birth defects and learning disabilities.
There is nothing that the Food and Drug Administration can legally do about it.
But that may begin to change as two Democratic lawmakers — Reps. Jan Schakowsky from Illinois and Edward Markey from Massachusetts — introduced the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 today. If passed, it will be the first meaningful effort to give the FDA the teeth, tools and mandate to protect consumers from harmful products that are used by almost everyone.
Under the current absence of oversight, it’s legal for cosmetics companies to use virtually any ingredient with no pre-market safety assessment.
This has bothered many of FDA’s risk experts and toxicologists, who say they’re eager to have the authority to delve into the litany of potentially hazardous chemicals in these products.
“This law is absolutely needed and the authority it will give FDA is even more crucial now as many manufacturers are using nano-sized chemicals such as titanium dioxide in their cosmetic and health products,” an FDA risk assessor told AOL News at the Institute of Food Technologists annual meeting in Chicago this week.
Some of what the legislation calls for includes:
- Ingredients linked to cancer and birth defects being phased out of personal care products.
- Health-based safety standards for all ingredients in cosmetics that includes protections for children and other vulnerable populations.
- Required listing on product labels of all chemical ingredients in personal care products, including fragrances and contaminants.
- Worker access to information about hazardous chemicals they may encounter in the manufacturing of personal care products.
- Adequate funding and support of the FDA Office of Cosmetics and Colors to pay for this oversight of the cosmetics industry.
Andrew Schneider
Senior Public Health Correspondent
Full Article on AOL News
