Cosmetics
Americans assume personal care products on the market today have been tested or approved by the federal government. However, they are largely unregulated. In fact, it has been more than 80 years since Congress last updated the federal law designed to ensure that personal care products are safe. The Food and Drug Administration does not even require the basic safety testing of ingredients in personal care products before they are used.
Although other countries have taken action to protect their citizens from chemicals linked to cancer and reproductive harm, FDA lacks the basic tools needed to ensure the safety of cosmetics and other personal care products.
Now a bipartisan group of lawmakers wants to change that.
Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) introduced legislation today that would require warning labels on cosmetics that could contain asbestos and are marketed to children.
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In testimony today before a House oversight hearing on cancer-causing chemicals in consumer goods, Scott Faber of the Environmental Working Group warned that talc-based personal care products could be contaminated with asbestos and called for greater oversight by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Read MoreA bipartisan bill introduced by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) would give the Food and Drug Administration the power to ensure that the chemicals used in cosmetics and other everyday personal care products are safe, said Scott Faber, EWG’s senior vice president of government affairs.
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The Food and Drug Administration issued a rare alert today, urging consumers to stop using certain cosmetics products from the national retailer Claire’s, after the agency found the deadly carcinogen asbestos in at least three different talc-based products.
Read MoreIn coming weeks, members of Congress will again introduce bipartisan bills to ensure that the chemicals used in cosmetics and other everyday personal care products are safe
Read MoreChildren exposed to chemicals commonly found in personal care products may be at a higher risk of suffering from lung damage later in life, according to a new European study.
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Most personal care products sold on store shelves today are made with chemicals introduced to the market decades ago. The vast majority of those ingredients have not been tested for safety, and many are linked to health hazards.
Read MoreA new study from the Danish Environmental Protection Agency found toxic fluorinated, or PFAS, chemicals at high levels in nearly one-third of the cosmetics products it tested.
Read MoreA new EWG analysis of serums and essences, popularized by Korean beauty, or K-Beauty, finds that about 40 percent of the products were formulated with less hazardous ingredients. U.S. sales of K-beauty products have increased by almost 300 percent in the past two years alone.
Read MoreLike K-Pop music and spicy fried chicken, skin care and beauty products from Korea are flooding the American market. U.S. sales of K-beauty products, as they’re called, have increased by almost 300 percent in the past two years alone.
Read MoreLast night, the reality television show “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” featured Kourtney Kardashian describing her routine use of EWG’s Healthy Living app and our consumer databases like Skin Deep® to score the personal care products and the food she chooses for her family.
Read MoreToday, 51 environmental and public health groups, including EWG, called on Amazon and eBay to remove illegal skin care products containing dangerous levels of mercury.
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California Baby®, a global skincare leader, is advancing the marketplace with a plant-based solution for preservatives in personal care products.
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The Food and Drug Administration will ban the use of toxic lead acetate in consumer hair dyes such as Grecian Formula, the agency announced today. Lead acetate is the active ingredient that slowly darkens gray hair when used every few days, and can increase the level of lead in users’ bodies.
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Hairdressers, nail technicians and other beauty salon workers face some of the greatest occupational exposures to toxic chemicals. A bill moving through the California Legislature would be the first in the nation to provide salon workers with the information about ingredients in the products they use daily.
Read MoreToday Johnson & Johnson, one of the largest multinational manufacturers of consumer packaged goods, announced a new transparency initiative that will provide additional details on fragrance chemicals used in its Johnson’s baby products.
Read MoreIt’s been 80 years since Congress last voted to regulate cosmetics.
Read MoreOn Tuesday, Kourtney Kardashian joined EWG President Ken Cook on Capitol Hill to brief reporters and congressional staffers about EWG’s #BeautyMadeBetter campaign.
Read MoreReleases from chemical products, including ones we use every day in our homes, are as much a cause of air pollution as automobile emissions, according to a new study that has big implications for how airborne pollutants are regulated.
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A rash of product recalls, government warning notices and contaminated cosmetics may finally push Congress to give our broken cosmetics law a makeover.
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