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Organic Cosmetics Should Stand for Safe & Natural
By David Steinman, from Healthy Living
Recently, Aubrey Hampton of Aubrey Organics filed a citizen petition with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to request that the government define the word organic in its relationship to cosmetics and personal care products. Knowing Aubrey, who is certainly the leading voice in organic cosmetics today, as we do, he no doubt knew and welcomed the fact that he would ignite a firestorm of controversy. We say: it's about time. There are some huge consumer health and safety issues at stake.
Altogether too many companies today are jumping on the organic and natural bandwagon. In fact, the natural personal care industry is growing twice as fast as the personal care industry as a whole, according to a report in the industry publication Happi. One company, we have noticed, labels its hair dye products, which contain possible cancer-causing chemicals, Natural Instincts Hair Coloring. The label for Clairol Herbal Essence claims the product contains "99% natural or plant-derived ingredients." Yet, our review of the label indicates that it would hardly be what we would call a natural cosmetic product. The question of what constitutes a natural cosmetic product, much less one that is organic, is sure to stimulate contentious public debate and political in-fighting within the cosmetic industry. How the issue is resolved will profoundly impact consumer health and trust in the organic label for cosmetics and personal care products.
For consumers it could mean the difference between having assurance that an organic cosmetic is a safe and healthy product‹or one simply masquerading as so‹with a meaningless government certification.
Organic Cosmetics: A Meaningless Term?
Legally, the term organic has a very strict definition when it comes to agricultural production. Put simply, organic crops contain no synthetic pesticides, fertilizers or other toxic synthetic ingredients. Since a natural cosmetic also contains agricultural products such as herbal extracts, there is a strong basis to regulate the organic term for this consumer category.
There is truly a need for coherent, well-defined regulations. If done properly, they should help to protect consumer health and well-being. Since 1990, at least 17 companies have applied for and or been granted trademarks utilizing the term organic for cosmetic use, and 11 additional trademarks utilizing the term were registered or renewed prior to 1990. There are also many claims and brand names now being marketed which are not the subject of federally registered marks. And, as mentioned, many cosmetics that are sold as so-called "natural" or "organic," to consumers seeking such products actually contain a wide range of chemical toxins.
Danger of Watered-down Definition of Organic
Many companies, both in the mainstream and natural product cosmetic industry, desire a watered-down definition of what an organic cosmetic product should be. Altogether too many of these companies have a long track record of using toxic ingredients and branding their products as natural and they will certainly lobby hard to weaken the regulations for organic cosmetics in order to fall under that prestigious category, too. As an example, many of these companies recently have been caught using diethanolamine (DEA), cocamide DEA, and triethanolamine (TEA), chemicals suspected of either causing cancer or the formation of cancer-causing nitrosamines. On the other hand, companies such as Aubrey Organics, Weleda, Noni of Beverly Hills and Logona, which are leading advocates of truly natural cosmetics, use pure coconut, soya and other vegetable oils.
Many companies will seek organic regulations that allow use of ethoxylated alcohols such as sodium laureth sulfate and cetereath alcohol because they are already doing so. Yet, our laboratory testing shows such ingredients are often contaminated with the cancer-causing chemical, 1,4-dioxane. Even small traces of this chemical in consumer products should be of concern, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Consumers will have minimal confidence in the term organic if contaminated raw materials are used.
Meanwhile, the purity of raw materials is another important issue. While Aubrey Organics has set-up independent testing of their raw materials to avoid undesirable impurities, most companies haven't. Take the case of lanolin, which is a perfectly safe ingredient whose presence in cosmetics is generally beneficial to skin, especially when it is sore and cracked. Cosmetic-grade lanolin can be contaminated with carcinogenic pesticides such as DDT, dieldrin, and lindane, in addition to neurotoxic pesticides. Some sixteen different pesticides were identified in lanolin sampled in 1988 (including the neurotoxic organophosphate pesticide diazinon, which was found in twenty-one out of twenty-five samples and readily penetrates the skin).
These chemicals are likely to migrate through the skin into the bloodstream. The National Academy of Sciences has expressed concern over the frequency of contamination of cosmetics containing lanolin with pesticides. Again, the lack of adequate safeguards could cause the entire organic cosmetic industry to be suspect, rather than limiting the problem to those companies that are not purifying their lanolin-based ingredients. The point we're making is that, if organic standards are watered down, the claim that a cosmetic product is organic will cease to have value or meaning. It will be akin to what almost happened last year when the U.S. Department of Agriculture initially proposed that foods could be labeled organic if they were genetically modified, grown in sewage sludge or contained some pesticide residues. It was only through a letter-writing campaign with more than 100,000 citizen letters to the USDA that the proposed regulations were withdrawn. Organic could be regulated into a meaningless cosmetic term in the same way.
Will Organic Mean Cancer-causing?
Issue after issue of The Doctors' Prescription for Healthy Living has uncovered for our readers products today both in the mainstream and in the natural products industry that claim to be natural, yet contain cancer-causing chemicals. It was only through my efforts as co-author of The Safe Shopper's Bible that we finally forced companies to stop using cocamide DEA, a chemical suspected of causing cancer.
Yet even today, many companies' so-called organic or natural products contain suspect cancer-causing chemicals such as 1,4-dioxane; nitrosamines; and formaldehyde. In other words, consumers could end up purchasing so-called "organic" cosmetics that contain cancer-causing chemicals.
A Modest Proposal for Organic Cosmetics
We propose that in order to be labeled organic a cosmetic should contain 95% or more organic ingredients (excluding water and salt) with the remaining 5% of ingredients appearing on a National Organic Cosmetics List that would detail substances safe and acceptable for use in the production and handling of cosmetic ingredients and cosmetic products. We propose, further, that organic mean minimal processing.
Where we will need to find common ground, however, is when needed types of ingredients simply cannot be organic because economic realities preclude their use, because the technology has not been developed which would enable an ingredient to meet organic criteria, or because the use of certain synthetic materials has a long history in traditional use and they are known to be safe. This is consistent with the organic food production regulations which allow some synthetic substances when natural alternatives are difficult to obtain and they are recognized as safe.
Beware, Those Who Would Make Organic Cosmetic Regulations
Beware, however, who becomes involved in this process, for the financial stakes will be measured in the billions of dollars. The Cosmetic Toiletry and Fragrance Association, the major industry trade group, will no doubt desire much input into the process. We know the CTFA. We believe the CTFA will attempt to water down the organic definition to please its many members, some of whose products have been known to contain a witches' brew of chemical toxins. In the past, CTFA has even implicitly condoned use of cosmetic ingredients suspected of causing cancer.
What to Do Now to Insure Cosmetics are Safe
The process of defining what an organic cosmetic is all about is sure to be lengthy. In the meantime, we would urge consumers to purchase those brands that already come closest to meeting the requirements for organic cosmetics and personal care products. For example, a growing number of the raw materials used in products manufactured by Aubrey Organics are already organically grown, including their camomile flowers, calendula flowers, peppermint leaves, nettle leaves, liquid cayenne pepper extract, aloe vera, and jojoba oil. What's more in January 2000, Aubrey began using certified organic Rosa Mosqueta® in his famous line of rose hip seed oil products (although this won't be reflected on product packaging until later this year). Similarly, companies such as Weleda seek organically grown herbs whenever possible. In addition, Frontier makes a line of certified organic essential oils. Other companies are doing an excellent job of eliminating potential toxins. Companies like Dr. Hauschka, Weleda, Noni of Beverly Hills and Ecco Bella are already well on their way to manufacturing truly organic cosmetics.
References:
Bitz, K. "CTFA scientific conference." Happi, December 1999: 70, 71.
Source:
Article by: David Steinman
Organic Cosmetics Should Stand for Safe & Natural for
Healthy Living
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