Please Support The Safe Cosmetics Act

On July 21, 2010, Representatives Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., introduced the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 (H.R.5786), which gives the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authority to ensure that personal care products are free of harmful ingredients.

On average most Americans use about 10 personal care products each day. We douse our bodies with shampoo, deodorant, baby powder and a whole slew of skin care products. A majority of these products expose us to at least 100 different chemicals of which many have been linked to adverse health effects like cancer, birth defects and learning disabilities, just to name a few.

Currently there is no regulation on personal care products. Under The Food Drug and Cosmetics act of 1938 they can not require cosmetics companies to conduct safety reviews or product recalls. For instance the FDA could not recall a particular skin whitening cream because they were found to contain illegal levels of toxic mercury. .A unregulated cosmetics industry has ignored the information about the toxicity of their products and potential hazards.

"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. "When there are cancer-causing chemicals in baby shampoo and mercury in skin cream, you know the regulatory system is broken," she added

The proposed bill would require cosmetics companies to provide significantly more information to the FDA than is currently required. This would include details of the ingredients, safety data assessments and full company and product details. In addition, the bill calls on the FDA to set up a database for cosmetics ingredients classing them into three categories - prohibited ingredients, restricted ingredients and ingredients that are safe without limits.

It is in my opinion a good bill, and although I am not really for more government regulation, the skin care product industry has fully taken advantage of the consumer and has exposed the public to long with questionable ingredients.

I do hope you take the time to support this bill. Contact your U.S. Representative and let them know that you support the Safe Cosmetics Act. Congress needs to know that this issue is important to constituents!

Next time you need a skin care product consider a homemade recipe, they are eco-friendly, inexpensive and just as, if not more, benefical to you skin. Visit Complete Skin Care Therapy for the some recipes or just check out my many posts here on Shine.

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