Cosmetics Safety Review Link

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http://www.ewg.org/reports/skindeep2/index.php

Skin Deep was conceived and developed by the Environmental Working Group, a non-profit research and advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. focused on safeguarding public health and the environment. Skin Deep is an online, brand-by-brand personal care product safety guide with in-depth information on 14,228 products - 988 brands of lotion, lip balm, deodorant, sunscreen and other popular products - and the 6,923 ingredients that form them. With its core of 37 toxicity and regulatory databases, Skin Deep provides safety ratings and brand-by-brand comparisons that can help consumers choose safer products, and that can guide companies in plans for reformulating products.

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Carcinogens in Cosmetics (http://www.safe2use.com/health/cosmetics.htm)

Environmental Working Group Safety Assessment of Cosmetics - searchable database, key in names of your products (http://www.ewg.org/reports/skindeep/)

Toxic Ingredients in Cosmetics - Ingredient Directory (http://www.hallgold.com/toxic-chemical-ingredients-directory.htm)

Excellent article on the politics behind the cosmetics industry and what you don't know about safety standards - lack thereof (http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20041227&s=schapiro)

Campaign for Safe Cosmetics from the Breast Cancer Fund (http://www.breastcancerfund.org/site/pp.asp?c=kwKXLdPaE&b=70918)

Finally, check out the book "The Safe Shoppers Bible". You can find it at the library.

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http://www.thinkbeforeyoupink.org/Pages/SafeShoppersGuide.html

http://www.hallgold.com/toxic-chemical-ingredients-directory.htm

REally excellent article on the politics behind why there is so much toxic crap in our cosmetics:

http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20041227&s=schapiro

Dr. Warns Cosmetics may be carcinogenic:
http://www.safe2use.com/health/cosmetics.htm

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics:
http://www.breastcancerfund.org/site/pp.asp?c=kwKXLdPaE&b=70918

Books:
Natural Beauty at Home (somebody buy me this for Christmas please [Wink] :
http://www.hairboutique.com/books/bookreview008.htm


Curly Girl by Lorraine Massey

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Make of this what you will.

quote:
For the first time, scientists have shown that pregnant mothers exposed to high but common levels of a widely used ingredient in cosmetics, fragrances, plastics and paints can have baby boys with smaller genitals and incomplete testicular descent. The more a mother was exposed to the chemicals called phthalates (THAL-ates), the greater the chance gher boy's reproductive development would be harmed.

Andrea Dunaif, chief of endocrinology at Northwestern University, called the findings "strong evidence in humans that this endocrine-disrupting chemical is associated with changes in boys." The changs are subtle, but male infertility rates appear to be rising, she said, and it's hard to know if a problem is environmental or just diagnosed more often. "The public health implications are enormous."

- [i]Environmental Health Perspectives Journal, May 29, 2005

Reprinted in: Pathways to Family Wellness, I.C.P.A. issue 6

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On Desitin and other diaper creams:

read the entire article in The Nation

Quote:
The main regulatory body for cosmetics in the United States is the industry itself, represented by the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association (CTFA). What that means, in effect, is that several times a year a Cosmetic Ingredient Review board (CIR)--made up of toxicologists drawn primarily from universities and paid for by the CTFA--reviews the existing literature on ingredients and makes recommendations to the industry. There is nothing that requires any member company to respond to the board's safety or health recommendations.

Over the past three years the review board suggested that at least nineteen ingredients be removed from personal care products--including coal tar, a hair dye linked to high rates of bladder cancer among hairdressers; sodium borate, sometimes called boric acid, which has been linked to testicular development problems and is included in Desitin diaper rash ointment for infants, and which the CIR recommended "should not be used on infant or injured skin"; iodopropynyl butylcarbamate, a mutagen in animal testing included in a South Beach tanning spray that the CIR recommended "not be used in products intended to be aerosolized"; and ethoxyethanol acetate in nail polish, which the CIR stated is "unsafe for use in cosmetic products." The FDA has done nothing to mandate removal of these or legions of other potentially dangerous ingredients, according to the Environmental Working Group.