U.S. Cosmetics Industry Fights to Continue Using Toxic Chemicals
By Kelly Hearn, AlterNet.org
Toxic
cosmetics ingredients were recently banned in the European Union. Here
in the U.S., the $35 billion cosmetics industry is fighting a similar
ban tooth and nail.
Phthalates,
the chemicals used in some cosmetics, may keep your nail polish hard
and shiny and your tresses thick and glossy, but in animal tests they cause birth defects, disrupt hormone systems and lead to reproductive problems.
Those are just a few of the reasons the European Union recently banned
them. Now, despite a huge outcry from the $35 billion cosmetics
industry, some California lawmakers are trying to ban phthalates in the
U.S.
California
Assemblywoman Judy Chu has introduced a bill that would ban the same
two types of phthalates as the EU did. In part because the FDA does not
conduct pre-market health testing of cosmetics ingredients (nor require
cosmetics makers to do so), Chu was moved to present a similar bill
last year that would have banned phthalates and other chemicals
blacklisted by entities like the International Agency for Research on
Cancer, the European Union and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Those
efforts were defeated. But if passed this session, Chu's Phthalates Ban
Bill (AB 908), would be the first ever phthalate ban in the United
States.
“After
three decades of extensive studies [on] carcinogens and reproductive
toxins, the EU banned two phthalates and those are the two that I am
proposing to ban,” Chu said in a recent telephone interview. “It is
outrageous that American women aren't give the same protections that
European women are. How can a whole continent of women be protected yet
Americans ignore this?”
…During last year's legislative session, Chu's original bill (AB
2012), would have prohibited phthalates and forced cosmetics
manufacturers to disclose to state officials any hazardous chemicals in
their products. That bill failed to pass the Assembly Health Committee after intense industry opposition.
(Click here to read the complete article.)
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