NO SAFETY TESTING FOR BEAUTY PRODUCTS

To understand why this problem exists, why consumers aren’t protected, you need only look as far as our current regulations to find an answer.   Outdated laws, a quickly-changing chemical picture, and a powerful beauty industry combine to make cosmetics, beauty and skin care products some of the least-regulated in the market today.

The Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act was passed by Congress in 1938, and it gave the FDA (Food and Drug Adminstration) the authority to oversee, among other things, the beauty and cosmetic industry.   This document is 2 pages long, and subsequent attempts to strengthen laws surrounding the beauty industry have been met with strong opposition by the beauty industry itself.  It’s these lax laws and regulations that have resulted in gaping loopholes and little protection for consumers.

Speaking of the FDA

Unlike drugs and pharmaceuticals, the FDA does not have the authority to require pre-market testing of beauty products.  By its own admission, the FDA does not regulate or even review what cosmetic formulators put into their products.  The FDA’s website explains just how limited they are on regulating this industry:

“FDA’s legal authority over cosmetics is different from other products regulated by the agency ….Cosmetic products and ingredients are not subject to FDA premarket approval authority, with the exception of color additives.”

Cosmetics Ingredient Review

In the absence of federal regulations, the beauty industry has created a self-policing group whose job it is to review the safety of cosmetics, skin care and beauty products.  The Cosmetics Ingredient Review (CIR) is comprised of industry-insider leaders who are, according to their website, tasked with reviewing and assessing “the safety of ingredients used in cosmetics in an open, unbiased, and expert manner….and publish the results in the peer-reviewed scientific literature.”

But many of the individuals who make up this review board are from the beauty industry itself—hardly those that are unbiased.   This fox-and-henhouse type of oversight scarcely makes consumers feel protected, and the CIR’s record only upholds this notion.  In the 30 years since its creation, the CIR has reviewed only 11 percent of cosmetics ingredients for safety.  And of those, they have recommended to ban only nine.   What’s more, the CIR does not take into consideration the effect of multiple chemicals, the timing of exposure (childhood vs. adult exposures) or the cumulative effect that repeated, everyday exposures have on the body.

Ah, those Europeans

Standing in stark contrast to the United States, the European Union (EU) takes a much stronger stance in protecting their consumers from hazardous chemicals in beauty products.  Revised 7 years ago, their EU Cosmetics Directive bans 1,100 chemicals from use in beauty and skin care products.  In contrast, the U.S. FDA has only banned 11 chemicals from use in American products.

In response to these banned chemicals, the beauty industry has responded – but only partially.  Many of the major manufacturers have been forced to reformulate their products to sell in Europe, but haven’t followed suit to remove the chemicals in the products sold in the U.S.  For consumers in the United States, this means that our formulations are made with more toxic and potentially harmful chemicals than those sold to our European counterparts – even if they are made by the same company. And while the different formulations clearly illustrate that products can be made cleaner and safer, the major manufacturers refuse to change.  Why?  Because no one is forcing them to, and because profits will suffer.  So American consumers are left to purchase the “dirtier”, more cheaply-created versions filled with chemicals and potentially harmful contaminants.

You’ve got options

In the absence of federal protection, and until state regulations can be strengthened to help protect consumers, we must protect ourselves.   And in many cases, this simply means making better buying decisions. Natural products with clearly and honestly written labels are a good place to start.

Click here to learn how Truth Naturals is working to protect you and your family.