The Story of Stuff Project

Surprise, surprise:  the big cosmetics companies aren’t such big fans of the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010—legislation introduced yesterday to more strictly regulate their business—or of our new movie. The Personal Care Products Council went so far as to issue a statement calling The Story of Cosmetics a “repugnant and absurd…shockumentary.” Whoa!

There’s a good reason the cosmetics industry doesn’t like all the attention it’s getting:  for years, they’ve been largely left alone to decide what’s safe to put in their products. You know, things like lead in lipstick. Neurotoxins in body spray. Carcinogens in baby wash.

Now that’s repugnant!

Yesterday, the industry front group released their own plan for “reforming” cosmetics industry regulation—basically a lame, watered-down version of the kinds of changes that would really help to make our products safer and healthier.

To learn more about the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010, click here, or check out Stacy’s blog to learn more about the industry press conference.

Now is a critical time to really turn up the volume on personal care product safety and to demand that Congress forces cosmetics companies to get the neurotoxins and carcinogens out of our personal care products.

We got a great start yesterday:  thanks to you, more than 50,000 people have watched The Story of Cosmetics over the last 24 hours and thousands more have taken action to make sure we get these nasty toxics out of our products. Yay!

In the next week, we want at least 100,000 more people to watch the film and add their voices to the call to clean up the cosmetics industry.

Will you help us get there?

Just keep doing what you’re doing—posting the video on your Facebook or Twitter, forwarding it to friends, family and colleagues, writing about it on your blog, shouting the url from the rooftops!  It also really helps when you comment on blog posts that mention the film.

And of course, make sure that you visit the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics website to sign a letter to your Member of Congress. Make your voice count!

Lawmakers Debating Whether FDA Should Step Up Regulation of Makeup

By JOYCE FRIEDEN, MedPage Today

July 22, 2010—

Congress and the cosmetics industry are both calling for tighter regulation of the chemicals used in cosmetics and other personal care products due to concerns over possible carcinogens and other toxic ingredients.

In Congress, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) introduced a bill on Tuesday calling for cosmetics makers to register with the federal government and for larger cosmetics firms to pay user fees to enforce the regulation. The Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 also would require all ingredients in a cosmetic product to be listed on the product’s label and would give the Secretary of Health and Human Services two years to develop a list of prohibited or restricted ingredients.

Cosmetics manufacturers would be required to notify the federal government of consumers who reported experiencing adverse health effects from their cosmetics and to use alternatives to animal testing of products.

Schakowsky said during a teleconference Wednesday that she introduced her bill — which was cosponsored by Reps. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) — because “Americans need to know that their cosmetics and personal care products don’t contain chemicals that could harm them.”

She noted that cosmetics manufacturers aren’t currently required to list all their ingredients on the package, “and when investigators have gone looking, they have turned up toxic chemicals: A recent Chicago Tribune investigation sent skin lightening creams to a lab for testing and found dangerous levels of mercury — a banned substance — in some of the products.”

Schakowsky said that current cosmetics laws are “woefully out of date, and Americans are at risk of being unknowingly exposed to harmful chemicals.”

For its part, the Personal Care Products Council, a lobbying group for cosmetics manufacturers, released its own plan for regulation in mid-July, which included requiring all cosmetics manufacturing facilities to register with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, to disclose all product ingredients to the FDA, and to report any serious adverse events to the agency. It also would require the FDA to establish safe levels for trace constituents in cosmetic ingredients and products.

Cosmetics Safety May Come Under FDA Scrutiny

The agency also would be required to review the safety of any ingredients used in cosmetics and other personal care products and establish “good manufacturing practice” requirements. The council detailed its proposal in a letter to Congressional leaders urging them to pass the legislation needed to enforce the proposed rules.

Council president and CEO Lezlee Westine said in a statement that although cosmetics “remain among the safest in the marketplace … Nonetheless, we believe it is time to develop a more contemporary approach that includes a greater federal regulatory role … Our consumers deserve multiple layers of protection and transparency.”

Schakowsky said in an email to MedPage Today that she was glad the council saw a need for increased oversight, “particularly given the fact that at the moment, they have virtual free rein to put dangerous chemicals into their products with very little federal intervention.” But she said she didn’t want the council’s letter to overshadow her bill.

“This legislation requires real FDA oversight and relies on independent scientific analysis by the FDA of the manufacturers claims about which ingredients are safe,” she said. “And, most importantly, that safety standard would ban entirely the use of dangerous chemicals in cosmetics — something the cosmetics industry opposes.”

Better regulation of cosmetics also is the focus of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, which on Thursday released a video urging consumers to lobby for safer cosmetic products. The campaign, founded by a coalition of groups including Clean Water Action, the Breast Cancer Fund, and Friends of the Earth, said in a press release that endocrine disruptors, carcinogens and other toxic chemicals are found in many personal care products, including lipstick and baby shampoo.

Copyright © 2010 ABC News Internet Ventures

Lead in Lipstick? Coal Tar in Shampoo? As New Bill Calls for Stricter Rules on Beauty Products, a Debate Between Campaign for Safe Cosmetics Founder and Cosmetics Industry Spokesperson

Do you know what’s in the personal care products that you use? Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) introduced legislation Tuesday night that would toughen safety standards for beauty products and require regular government testing for hazardous ingredients. We host a debate between Stacy Malkan, founder of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and author of Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry, and John Bailey, chief scientist at the Personal Care Products Council and a spokesperson for the cosmetics industry

Skin Deep: Online Cosmetics Safety Database Rates 62,000+ Beauty Products

We speak with Jane Houlihan, vice president for research at the Environmental Working Group and the creator of Skin Deep, an online cosmetics safety database. The database provides safety ratings for more than 62,000 products on the market and receives about one million hits per month.

Actress and Cancer Survivor Fran Drescher Speaks Out in Support of New Bill Seeking Stricter Cosmetics Rules

Actress and cancer survivor Fran Drescher is speaking out in support of the bill introduced by Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D–IL) that would toughen safety standards for beauty products. Drescher is best known for her role as Fran Fine on the long-running former sitcom The Nanny. She is also a cancer survivor and the founder of the group Cancer Schmancer.

For folks in the greater NYC area, join CHEJ, the Teamsters, Clean New York, and other health and environmental leaders at a press event this coming Thursday at Toys R Us’ flagship store in Times Square, NYC…

TOXIC TOYS R US?:  JOIN PARENTS, WORKERS, OTHER HEALTH AND JUSTICE ACTIVISTS IN HOLDING THE TOY RETAILER ACCOUNTABLE.

HELP US TAKE ACTION!!!   TELL TOYS R US:

End the toxic toy story. Label PVC presence on all toys. Agree to a complete phase-out of PVC.

WHEN:  Thursday, July 22nd, 2010, 11:30 am-12:30pm

WHERE:  In front of Toys R US-Times Square, NYC (44th and Broadway)

PARTICIPATE IN: Live Toy Testing; Leafleting; Return Toxic Toys to TOYS R US

RSVP:  Mike Schade – mike@chej.org or 212.964.3680

WHY? In 2008, under pressure from parents and other people concerned about toxic toys, Toys R’ US, the largest specialized toy retailer in America, announced a new policy to reduce polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic, phthalates, and lead in children’s and infant toys.

The company says it is reducing PVC use and is moving towards a goal of offering PVC-free products. They also announced that by the end of 2008, juvenile products must be produced without the addition of phthalates.

Unfortunately, independent testing this June 2010 has revealed that Toys R’ US continues to sell brand new toys laced with PVC, the poison plastic, while not providing information to the parents and the public at large as to the types of plastic used.

Chemicals released in PVC’s lifecycle have been found to cause impaired child development and birth defects, cancer, disruption of the endocrine system, reproductive impairment, neurotoxicity and immune system suppression.

It’s no surprise that Toys R’ Us is selling unsafe products. After all, Kohlberg Kravitz and Roberts (KKR), the private equity firm that owns Toys R’ Us is out to make a profit at anybody’s expense. They even abuse workers’ rights at their food service company, US Foodservice.

What we’ve learned is that we can’t rely on hazy promises for self-regulation by Toys R US top managers.

The Center for Environmental Health & Justice and the Teamsters Union are therefore commissioning a Report, to be delivered to Congress before Christmas, on Toys’ R US Toys Safety Policy and Practices, with a special focus on its failure to phase out-PVC.

Toys R’ US, with its unique brand recognition and massive operations carries a great deal of responsibility, it is unconscionable that it should continue to peddle toys made with toxic plastic, while keeping parents, caregivers and communities in the dark.

HELP US TAKE ACTION!!!   TELL TOYS R US

End the toxic toy story. Label PVC presence on all toys. Agree to a complete phase-out of PVC.

Brought to you by the Center for Health, Environment & Justice (CHEJ), The Teamsters, Clean New York and other health and environmental leaders.

***If you aren’t in NY and want to start a local campaign against PVC producers or vendors, check out; www.chej.org/BESAFE/pvc

By Margot Roosevelt:

“Annie Leonard used to spout jargon. She reveled in the sort of geek-speak that glazes your eyeballs.

Externalized costs, paradigm shifts, the precautionary principle, extended producer responsibility.

That was before she discovered cartoons.

Today the 45-year-old Berkeley activist is America’s pitchperson for a new style of environmental message. Out with boring PowerPoints and turgid reports; in with witty videos that explain complex issues in digestible terms…”

Click here to read the full story!

It’s probably one of the most common questions that we get asked at the Story of Stuff Project:   “How do you all stay so positive in the face of (insert horrifying ecological or social problem here)?”

In Annie’s case, we think it might be chemical, but for the rest of the Story of Stuff crew, a huge reason we keep coming to the office everyday is the opportunity to connect with people around the world who are inventing Another Way. Let’s face it; it’s hard to be Debbie Downer when the folks around you are so inspiring.

My most recent brush with solutions has me all a flutter (in addition to confirming that I am an absolute and total geek).

This July I spent the better part of a week in Lowell, Massachusetts at the Lowell Center’s Sustainability Action Summer Institute. The training was a gathering of a special kind of nerd (myself included) who is fascinated by the toxicity of various chemical compounds in cleaning products and thinks that brominated flame retardants in cell phones makes for stimulating dinner conversation. Needless to say, I had a great time.

I think I found the week so nourishing mainly because the entire meeting was solutions oriented. Here was a room full of policy wonks, academics, scientists, foundation representatives, and sustainability advocates who really understand the disastrous consequences of our super toxic, chemical-laden culture for people and the planet.  If ever there was a group of people who could tell you how x-chemical causes cancer and y-chemical is killing off all the fish and z-chemical results in birth defects this was it.

Yet for the five days that I was in Lowell, the conversation was almost exclusively about what was being done to change the landscape and bring us closer to the kind of future we want:  debriefs on state and national policies—like the Safer Chemicals Act—to regulate the use of toxic chemicals; an orientation on the Pharos database that helps activists study up on toxic chemicals and helps green builders make safer and more sustainable materials choices; talking through frameworks for sustainable products and alternatives assessments; and exploring the groundbreaking work being done to green the electronics industry.

One real highlight was a dinner with John Warner, one of the fathers of green chemistry. Warner inspired me with the incredible possibility that creativity and innovation hold for transforming entire industries to be safer and more sustainable. Even if less geeky sectors of the population may not be as enthralled as I am by the possibility of dry chemicals reactions or a database comparing the most sustainable, least toxic resilient flooring options, I think that we can all agree that creativity and innovation are captivating.

To borrow from one of the Lowell Center’s slogans “Natural resources are finite, ideas are not.”  And that is a very good thing.

Excerpt from the New York Times:

CONCORD, Mass. — Henry David Thoreau was jailed here 164 years ago for refusing to pay taxes while living at Walden Pond. Now the town has Jean Hill to contend with.

Mrs. Hill, an octogenarian previously best known for her blueberry jam, proposed banning the sale of bottled water here at a town meeting this spring. Voters approved, with the intent of making Concord the first town in the nation to strip Aquafina, Poland Spring and the like from its stores.

In orchestrating an outright ban, Mrs. Hill, 82, has achieved something that powerful environmental groups have not even tried. The bottled water industry is not pleased; it has threatened to sue if the ban takes effect as planned on Jan. 1. Officials here have hinted that they might not strictly enforce it, but Mrs. Hill, who described herself as obsessed, said that would only deepen her resolve.

“I’m going to work until I drop on this,” she said. “If you believe in something, you have to persist and you have to have a thick skin.”

Read the full article HERE.