Three members of the U.S. House of Representatives, in conjunction with the activist group Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, are aiming to overhaul current FDA regulations in order to tighten up the control of cosmetic and personal care products through the introduction of the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010. The bill would force cosmetic companies to provide to the FDA detailed product information including ingredients and safety data assessments putting cosmetics into the same stringent regulatory category as food or drugs.
The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is a nom de plume for the Environmental Working Group (EWG), which has taken the leadership role in this crusade for the past five years, says ACSH s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. They claim cosmetics are not regulated like drugs, as if they need to be.
According to bill supporter Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Harmful chemicals have no place in the products we put on our bodies or on our children s bodies.
ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross is a bit confused. What harmful chemicals is she talking about? He adds, EWG deems phthalates which are found in cosmetics and personal care products to be horrible toxins, but in fact phthalates are nontoxic and actually quite safe. While people may be allergic to certain ingredients in cosmetic products, there is no body of data showing adverse effects or illness induced by cosmetics.
After reading about this proposed junk-science legislation, Dr. Ross sadly concludes that this is just another case of an activist environmental group with no scientific expertise and its lackeys in Congress trying desperately to solve a problem that doesn t exist, at a great expense to the public and the economy.
Dr. Whelan sums it up nicely: These groups use no scientific evidence they just make false charges.
