Are the ingredients in these safe?

Looking for ways to look your best — naturally? Look no further. Through reviews of all-natural and organic products and investigations into cosmetic ingredients, our Natural Beauty column will help you make more informed decisions about your beauty purchases.

Let’s think about all the personal care products the average person uses in a day. The Environmental Working Group estimates that number is around 10. Many readers of this blog might be using an even greater number of products in their daily routines.

Annie Leonard, the genius behind The Story of Stuff and the new, incredibly informative video, “The Story of Cosmetics,” says it best. The labels “natural,” “organic,” and “herbal” have no legal definition, and the only people who make decisions about the compositions of our personal care products are politicians who continue to permit the use of toxic chemicals.

Fortunately, some of our political leaders are looking out for our interests. Last month, Reps. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., Ed Markey, D-Mass. and Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc. introduced the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010, which will, if passed, eliminate toxic chemicals from the products we use every day while leveling the playing field for businesses already working to create safer products for their customers.

Here are the highlights of the legislation, as outlined by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics:

• Phase out ingredients linked to harmful health effects;
• Create a health-based safety standard for vulnerable populations;
• Require full ingredient disclosure on product labels, including the constituent ingredients of fragrance;
• Give workers access to information about unsafe chemicals – nail technicians and salon workers are most at risk for exposure as they handle personal care products in their professional as well as personal lives;
• Require data-sharing to avoid duplicate testing and encourage cruelty free testing;
• Provide adequate funding for resources necessary to meet these goals;
• Create a market in which small businesses can compete fairly.

Most importantly, this legislation will require cosmetic companies to exercise the precautionary principle. In essence, the precautionary principle means corporations cannot, for example, use any amount of a chemical linked to cancer in baby shampoo. Because the chance of a harmful health effect exists, that ingredient is off-limits.

We have the right to feel safe when we grab a beauty product off the shelves. With the approval of this bill, we will be one step closer in achieving that sense of security.

Photos: Lipstick – J.C. Lopez; Capitol – Wally Gobetz