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.


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