More coverage of the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 and The Story of Cosmetics, this AOL News article featuring a quote from our policy expert, Janet Nudelman:
"'Most people assume the FDA regulates cosmetics the same way it does food and drugs to ensure they are safe. In reality, cosmetics are one of the least-regulated consumer products on the market today,' said Janet Nudelman, program director of the Breast Cancer Fund." (Read complete article.)
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last week ran an in-depth feature on the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and efforts across the country to put safer personal care products on store shelves. The Campaign is a project of the Breast Cancer Fund and several partner organizations.
"Much like the tobacco industry, which denied for years the mounting body of evidence that smoking caused cancer and emphysema, the global $300 billion cosmetics industry argues that toxic ingredients are absorbed in such small amounts they have no dangerous effect. Yet added to the host of other toxins to which we are exposed and multiplied by repeated use of those products we use daily, even trace amounts can add up fast, experts say." (Read complete article.)
The Safe Cosmetics Act made headlines last week, as the bill was introduced in the House of Representatives. The Chicago Tribune broke the story and quoted our own Lisa Archer, national coordinator of the the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.
"U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., introduced legislation Tuesday that would toughen safety standards for cosmetics, including requiring regular government testing of products for hazardous ingredients." (Read complete article.)
Cleaning up toxic chemicals was very much on the national agenda this week: Yesterday Reps. Rush and Waxman introduced the Toxic Chemicals Safety
Act of 2010 in the House of Representatives. (Read more about the bill from Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families.)
The proposed law would protect people and the environment from toxic chemicals by requiring manufacturers to prove they are safe and the EPA to restrict use of the worst chemicals - the stuff we already know is linked to disease.
Thought that was already happening? Think again: The 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act, which directs the EPA's oversight of industrial chemicals (except for their use in cosmetics, food, pesticides and various other categories) is sadly lacking in public health protections. Along with our partners in the Safer
Chemicals, Healthy Families coalition, we've been advocating for a strong reform in the House and in the Senate.
Please take a minute to write to your elected officials in both the House and Senate in support of these tandem TSCA reform efforts!
All this while we're still absorbing the amazing watershed events of Wednesday. Today we capped off a week of safe cosmetics advocacy with a Congressional briefing on the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010, featuring our own Janet Nudelman, Jane Houlihan from the Environmental Working Group, Maryann Donovan, Ph.D., M.P.H., from the Center for Environmental Oncology, and actress, cancer survivor and advocate Fran Drescher.
Of course, you can write to Congress in support of the Safe Cosmetics Act, too.
This could go down as one of the biggest days in the history of cosmetics safety in the U.S. Today the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics (a project of the Breast Cancer Fund), all our partner organizations, and our friends at the Story of Stuff Project and Free Range Studios launched The Story of Cosmetics, a short online film that tells it like it is: right now there's no required safety testing of ingredients in personal care products, resulting in chemicals linked to cancer and other diseases in our shampoo, our lotion, our lipstick - and in us. Watch the whole fantastic video below.
It all sounds sort of grim until you get to this news: today Congress determined to do something about this ugly beauty mess.
Reps. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., today introduced the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010, (HR 5786), which gives the Food and Drug Administration authority to ensure that personal care products are free of harmful ingredients.
Existing law, passed in 1938, granted decision-making about ingredient safety to the cosmetics industry - classic fox-guarding-the-hen-house scenario.
On this momentous day, there are three really important things you can go to help secure safe cosmetics for everyone:
If you're one of the 10 million people who watched The Story of Stuff, created by Breast Cancer Fund Hero Annie Leonard, you likely recognize the new film.
Annie and her talented team partnered with the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics (a project of the Breast Cancer Fund) and together we're putting the finishing touches on this new 7-minute film, which we hope will reach millions.
After a nail-biter of a vote, at noon today the California Assembly passed a bill that would (will!) remove the estrogenic chemical BPA from baby bottles, sippy cups, formula cans and baby food jars. That's one thrilling leap forward for children's health and breast cancer prevention, and a giant step back for the chemical industry, which spent more than $5 million trying to defeat the bill.
Today the Breast Cancer Fund celebrates this amazing victory. And then we're right back at it in Sacramento, making sure the bill passes a concurrence vote in the Senate AND gets signed by Gov. Schwarzenegger.
Thanks to a most dedicated team of staff, advocates, legislative champions, scientists, letter-writers, callers, allied organizations and supporters of all kinds for convincing the Assembly that kids and health must come first.
Check out this powerful editorial (excerpted below) that calls out the 13 California Assembly members who abstained from voting in support of the Breast Cancer Fund-sponsored BPA bill. It's up for a final vote today. Let's hope this editorial helps the Assembly members do the right thing for children's health today.
Your legislature in inaction
Senate
Bill 797 was rejected in the Assembly on Wednesday, with 37 members
voting yes, 29 voting no and 13 members failing to vote. Passage
requires 41 votes. The measure is expected to come up for
reconsideration today. You can be sure that lobbyists for the chemical
industry will be working the Capitol hallways. Make your views known to
the 13 legislators who failed to vote on Wednesday - which had the
effect of a "no" vote against SB797.
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