Salubrious Life

What's In Your Cosmetics?

The consumer lobby group Environmental Working Group has launched a new website that gives brand-by-brand safety ratings for some 14,500 cosmetic and personal care products currently sold on the US market – a move that industry representatives consider to be misguided. And why wouldn't they? The searchable data base makes it easy to understand what they try to hide with marketing and fancy packaging.

 

Known as ‘Skin Deep,' the service allows consumers to “fill the information gap left by an industry that markets thousand of products with ingredients that have not been assessed for safety by either industry or government health experts”, EWG said in a press statement.

The searchable database for the EWG service features information on shampoos, lotions, deodorants, sunscreens and other products from almost 1,000 brands, built from a core of 37 toxicity and regulatory databases that the organization has collated in recent years.

EWG says that consumers can use Skin Deep to create customized shopping lists that are free of both carcinogens and substances that effect fetal development.

"Most of us expect that the products we find on store shelves have been tested for safety, but the government has no authority to require tests," said EWG vice president for Science Jane Houlihan. "An average adult is exposed to over 100 unique chemicals in personal care products every day - these exposures add up."

Unlike the regulations set down by the European Commission in Europe, there are currently no industry-wide safety standards for the cosmetics and toiletry industry in the US. The EWG says that following a petition it sent to the FDA, a response sent on September 29 confirmed that there were no plans to establish one.

"Without federal oversight or standards, companies should inform consumers of their own internal studies, and how they decide if a product or ingredient is safe enough to sell," Houlihan said.

Will "Natural" soon be legislated?

Should a 90-percent synthetic product be labeled natural? The International Association of Natural Product Producers thinks not, and has spent nine months creating a clear definition of the term natural, so consumers and retailers can have more confidence in products touting the unregulated, often ambiguous term.

“The term natural has been so abused because it doesn’t have a specific definition,” said Darrin Duber Smith, IANPP president. “We’re trying to give it a specific identity.”

The IANPP, formed for the sole purpose of setting up a voluntary standard for products containing natural ingredients, has put together draft definitions for natural topical and ingestible ingredients. Now up for public comment, the definitions present clear requirements for products to meet in order to carry the IANPP label. The proposed definitions can be viewed at www.ianpp.org/natural.htm. Duber Smith said the group is also working on a list of non-natural ingredients that will be disallowed.

Though thoughts of government regulation are distant, Duber Smith said the IANPP hopes a certifying agency like NSF International or Quality Assurance International will participate in the self-regulatory labeling system within the naturals industry.

Duber Smith said the organization hopes to produce its own private seal, similar to the National Organic Program seal, which would assure customers that products have been approved by a nonprofit certifying agency to meet the IANPP’s standards. Labeling divisions may include 70 percent, 90 percent or 100 percent natural categories, similar in style to the NOP’s labels.

“It will differentiate our products,” said Duber Smith, who expects tens of thousands of companies to pay the organization’s $150 annual membership fee, which could mean a big increase in business for the certifying agency, he said. So far, more than 25 companies have joined IANPP, including Jason, Aubrey, Naturade, Frutarom and Swheat Scoop.

These new standards could be especially helpful to personal care companies, which cannot use the NOP organic seal, though many of their products use the terms organic or natural on their labels. The IANPP’s label would represent a standard for consumers to trust. “We have to clean up our industry mess right now,” Duber Smith said.

Source: The Natural Foods Merchandiser, New Hope Media.

Coming Clean with branding

Could we finally be getting closer to an era of truth in advertising?

Well....let's not get too excited, but a movement by the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) the nations largest network of organic consumers is set to move the ball much further down the field.

At Expo West next week (March 17-20 , Anaheim,CA) buyers of natural and organic products will be confronted by a huge consumer education push regarding the mis-branding of organic and natural products by manufacturers who still continue to place conventional synthetic cleansers, preservatives and chemicals in their products.

The rampant mis-use of the term "ORGANIC/ORGANICS" on products which may have as little as 20% of that in the formulation is corrupting the marketplace.

Says Ronnie Cummins, Executive Director of the OCA "Unfortunately, despite some positive changes in how companies use and describe their organic ingredients, the ever more widespread practice of companies using "ORGANIC" or "ORGANICS" to brand non-organic products is spiraling out of control, to the point we have no choice but to wage a massive public education campaign focused on organic mis-branding"

Word to manufacturers........"It's on"!!  And high time too.

But where there's a hole in the system, there's a reason to go through it. The USDA has done nothing to ensure that companies don't mis-represent products in the natural/organic sector. The standards for a product being placed in this category are disturbingly low. Not the same with food companies.  In this regard, the USDA is explicit about the appropriate labeling of organic products.

When is the USDA going to get the fact that putting something on your skin is the same as putting it in your mouth??

And while the demand for natural and organic consumer products is at an all time high, Companies looking to increase their bottom lines will continue to enter the market with misleading labeling.........creating confusion for the consumer and potentially ruining the market place for those who truly want to offer a natural alternative and tell the truth about it.

Why "Clean" Products Are Important

What does it mean when we say that a product has a "clean formulation"?  It means that there are no synthetic ingredients, no petroleum products, artificial fillers, perfumes, dyes or talc in the product - at all. This is important for the health of our bodies, complexions, our children, air, water and land. It is healthy for a clean industry such as organic farming and it is important for a healthy future.

"All Natural" has lost it’s meaning by being used so indiscriminately in the marketing of products, instead of in the formulation of them. So the term CLEAN is a word that we use to indicate the real thing. We've found only a dozen or so products that truly fall into this category and we'll introduce you to them in our column called  "Label Watch".

Why no Petroleum Products? Simply put, they pollute our lives, air, water, land and marine life. Petroleum products used in skincare and cosmetics include mineral oil, paraffin(used as thickeners), propelene, ethylene and diethylene glycol which are absorbed through the skin and can caused allergic reactions, not to mention long term effects that are still under investigation

Why no Artificial Dyes, Perfumes or Preservatives?  Synthetics, which are often derived form petroleum, need not be used to stabilize all cosmetic formulations. In herbal traditions, the combination of ingredients is what creates product stability. But still one must be attune to shelf lives, method of storage and use of the product within a relatively short period of time. No need to hang onto a product for 50 years (which is what some of these artificial preservatives guarantee). If a small bottle or jar of product is not gone within a few months, you probably don’t care for it and would be better off throwing it away!

Why no Talc? The molecular structure of talc is jagged and is abrasive to lung tissue when inhaled. Also, talc is known to occur in nature side by side with asbestos and has been known to contain trace s of the carcinogenic substance in its preparation. It is also extremely drying to the skin. Eliminating excessive moisture is the thought behind using "powder" , however, talc eliminates most ALL of the moisture , not just the excess which is what natural arrowroot and cornstarch and clay do so effectively.