California passes the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2005

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California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently signed a law that will require any company selling a personal care product containing any ingredient that is a human carcinogen or reproductive toxin to disclose that to the Department of Health Services beginning in 2007. 

The Safe Cosmetics Act of 2005 is in response to environmental and consumer groups questioning what products really contain and what effect it has on the body.  The argument is that some personal care products may have potential risks that could outweigh the potential benefits. 

Advocates of the bill, including sponsor Sen. Carol Migden, D-San Francisco, hope the law will motivate companies to reformulate products to make them safer.  According to Migden, a company will be less likely to want to report as public information that their products contain carcinogens and chemicals that could potentially cause birth defects.  The information would be available for access online. 

The Environmental Working Group is planning on releasing its latest “Skin Deep” report, which analyzes ingredients of thousands of products and identifies ones containing possible carcinogens.  Coal tar, which can be found in products like dandruff shampoo, and lead acetate, found in dark colors of hair dye, repeatedly appeared in previous Skin Deep reports, as well as phthalates, plasticizers, which some studies have suggested can interfere with the development of male reproductive organs, formaldehyde and silica. 

An EWG spokeswoman said while it is not absolute, even the possibility that the ingredients could cause cancer should be enough to eliminate it from products consumers apply directly to their bodies.  The cosmetics industry opposed the Safe Cosmetics Act, calling the safety concerns ill founded and hysterical and characterizing the EWG as a radical group. 

Consumers should not jump to conclusions yet, however.  Just because products can contain possible or probable human carcinogens does not mean it is a carcinogen. 

 


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