I'm just sayin'...Soapbox Style Part II
The Slippery Slope of Bad Science
I live and do business with green practices. Organic is part of our business and how we eat and shop. Natural medicine is a major part of my life, beliefs and history. My husband and I got into the natural cosmetic industry because of my own allergies and chemical sensitivities. I am telling you all this so that you understand that I believe in green, natural and organic in all things. My stance against the Colorado Safe Personal Care Products Act is due to the fact that even completely safe cosmetics using organic, natural and organic materials will be banned in Colorado with this bill.
I live and do business with green practices. Organic is part of our business and how we eat and shop. Natural medicine is a major part of my life, beliefs and history. My husband and I got into the natural cosmetic industry because of my own allergies and chemical sensitivities. I am telling you all this so that you understand that I believe in green, natural and organic in all things. My stance against the Colorado Safe Personal Care Products Act is due to the fact that even completely safe cosmetics using organic, natural and organic materials will be banned in Colorado with this bill.
The Colorado Safe Personal Care Products Act is a misguided social agendas that will harm businesses of all sizes and make personal care products vanish from the shelves of every store in Colorado. This proposed act will give any sized business (but especially small) 5000+ reasons not to sell products into Colorado if this were to become a law.
Old school cosmetics used a whole lot of chemicals in the formulas, but the majority of new businesses have gone the opposite direction. The entire cosmetic industry has followed in response to consumer demand. Capitalism works! Consumers buying power changes the way companies do business. Amazingly enough all these new regulations being proposed at Federal and State levels actually hurt the small businesses that led the way into natural cosmetics far more than the big businesses because we use more natural ingredients which get higher ratings on the Cosmetic Database than synthetic chemical ones in many cases. Robert Tisserand wrote an excellent blog today that explains how essential oils and extracts will be negatively impacted by this bill. You can read it here.
As an American citizen we have the right to make our own educated decisions. The EWG/Campaign for Safe Cosmetics/Cosmetic Database is more than welcome to put out their side of the story, but you simply must allow American citizens to make their own choices and not be regulated into a corner.
Let me give you a good example of one product that would vanish from the shelves in Colorado. Green Eye Shadow, yes everyone in Colorado you will not be allowed to buy green eye shadow, because the EPA has the main ingredient listed as “likely to be a carcinogenic to humans.” Of course the EPA was talking about Chromic acid in a mist, but it is on the list so it is banned. The ingredient is completely safe in cosmetics. As a matter of fact, eye lid cancer is extremely rare and is more common in men (19.6 cases per every 100,000 men) than in women (13.3 cases per every 100,000 women) and is attributed to the sun and not green eye shadow.
I could go through a long list of personal care items and brands that will be banned in Colorado if this bill passes, but what will be shocking to most of the signers of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is that their products will be banned too. With the wide open language of the bill any agency can become an authority. Honestly how many signers use Chromium Dioxide? I am sure many of them do because in the cosmetic application it is a completely safe ingredient, but the Cosmetic Database says that it causes cancer, hence they are breaking their own compact and could be sued if they sell their product in Colorado. There have been some very good comments left on my blog Colorado Safe Personal Care Products Act :: Take Action Immediately including some from Katherine of Sterling Minerals that list many compact signers ingredients that would be banned by Colorado.
Just because the EWG/Campaign for Safe Cosmetics/Cosmetic Database is being the loudest it doesn’t make them right. We absolutely must speak up. As an industry we are making safe cosmetics. We are using safe ingredients. We do care about the health of our customers. Consumers have a right to choose what cosmetics they believe are best for their family. Please do your own research. Feel free to check my information, but also check what the EWG and Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is claiming too. Dig deep to find the methodology of the studies used to determine whether an ingredient is deemed safe or not. Ask yourself if you plan on using the ingredient the way the study was done. If injecting an ingredient into your skin isn’t your plan of action make sure that the research is based on topical application instead.
How to Stop a Fast Moving Train that is Going in the Wrong Direction :: United Together
How do we stop a fast moving train that demonizes cosmetic companies? Organizations like the Environmental Working Group (EWG)/Campaign for Safe Cosmetics/Cosmetic Database have convinced consumers, as well as State and Federal lawmakers, that cosmetic companies are evil. It feels like we are in a bizarre cheesy B rated movie in which the plot twist has been deeply hidden. Cosmetic companies are being portrayed as the villains, consumers are the portrayed as the innocent victims and special interest groups are the heroes. The plot twist here is that there really is no evil villain and the self proclaimed hero’s are misguiding everyone into a disaster of socialized cosmetics. Really, I said it, we are allowing one organization to tell us what we are allowed to buy as consumers of personal care products.
You know the feeling you get when you are watching a scary movie and the character is walking right into a trap. You are sitting in your movie theater seat trying to warn the character that the bad guy is trapping them, but the character keeps moving into the trap, and you are going nuts in your seat. That is how this feels! Please America wake up from this trance and look deeper into the issues. The plot twist is that these groups are leading us into a nightmare of regulation with their biased unscientific information.
The very unfortunate thing is that the signers of the Compact for Safe Cosmetics have so much in common with the businesses that are against legislation like this. In the end the signers, those of us who removed our names from the list and those that never signed it will all be hurt by the dangerous slippery slope of over-regulation that we are heading towards. To read more perspectives on this bill please read Indie Business Blog Oppose the Colorado Safe Personal Care Products Act, The Soap Queen You Can Die From Salt Too, Handcrafted Soapmakers Guild From the President – Colorado Safe Personal Care Products Act.
What do you think? Do you want the government to tell you what color eye shadow you can wear, which soap you use to bathe or what lotion you use?
Posted by Sandra at 02-27-2010 03:47 AM 
Categories: Pet Peeves, I'm Just Saying...
Tags: cosmetics legislation NGOs
Categories: Pet Peeves, I'm Just Saying...
Tags: cosmetics legislation NGOs
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