News Coverage
What's in Your "Organic" Shampoo
Published December 1, 2003
"The pores in your skin are like a million tiny little mouths, absorbing lotions, shampoos, and soaps.' So stated Craig Minowa at the Organic Consumers Association's (OCA) press conference held September 5, 2003, in Washington, DC, outside the Natural products Expo. East. OCA wants to inform consumers about the misuse of the term organic by many body-care and cosmetic companies, and also about the actual damage research traces to some cosmetic and body-care products.
OCA is demanding the US Department of Agriculture regulate organic body products just as it has organic food. Because the body-products industry is unregulated in its use of organic, the term can be used in misleading ways. Several major cosmetic companies are using floral waters, hydrosols (steam passed through plant material), and other organic "infusions" to artificially inflate the "organic" content of their products. "the practice... has become wide-spread, " warned Diana Kaye and Jim Hahn, the founders of Terressentials, a reputable organic farm that also provides a range of body-care products.
Larry Plesent, founder of Vermont Soap Works and now of Green Products Alliance, used an analogy to explain the situation. "The organic [food] rules were written so that a pot pie made with organic ingredients is not using the water in the gravy as the main basis for their organic claim." However, a consumer can buy a lotion that bases its "organic" label on a 70 percent water content. According to Plesent, such a product "just ain't organic!"
For pregnant women or new mothers, the presence of phthalates in some body-care and cosmetic products makes that lack of regulation particularly alarming. In animal research. phthalates have been shown to harm the testes of developing males. The organization Health Care without harm, together with Women's Voice's for the Earth and the Environmental Working Group, tested a number of body products currently available through drugstores and high-end cosmetic counters. of the products tested, 72 percent contained one or more phthalates. Many nail polishes contained one of the most dangerous phthalates, which is now banned in europe. the body product containing the most phthalates was Poison, a perfume made by Christian Dior.