Environmental Impact

An Unregulated Market

The cosmetics industry is perhaps one of the most unregulated industries that currently exists—many ingredients in cosmetic products are not tested for safety at all. In fact, The Environmental Working Group revealed in 2004 that 89 percent of 10,500 ingredients used in personal care products had not been evaluated for safety by the FDA. This means that companies can market ingredients that are known to pose potentially serious health risks.

Problematic Ingredients

In a 2004 study conducted by scientists at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, scientists found high concentrations of parabens--commonly used cosmetic preservatives that can mimic the hormone estrogen--in 18 out of 20 breast tumor samples.

Moisturizers with sunscreen protection come with their own worries. Benzophenone (benzophenone-3), homosalate, and octyl-methoxycinnamate (octinoxate) have shown estrogenic activity in lab tests. Padimate-O and Parsol 1789 are chemicals that have the potential to damage DNA when illuminated with sunlight. Finally, tiny, microscopic nanoparticles of the sunscreens titanium dioxide and zinc oxide may enter the body through cuts and abrasions, working their way into the brain where they may cause cell damage.

Other harmful ingredients found in moisturizers include carcinogenic coal tar, used in artificial colors such as FD&C Blue 1 and FD&C Green 3, and fragrance, an umbrella term for a conglomeration of chemicals that could include hormone-disrupting pthalates; the neurotoxin toluene; volatile organic compounds methyl ethyl ketone, methyl isobutyl ketone and ethyl alcohol; the probable carcinogens benzyl chloride and methylene chloride; and other allergenic petrochemicals. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, fragrance is the number one cause of allergic reactions in cosmetics.

See "The Dirty Dozen" for more detail about the worst offenders.

Animal Welfare

Animal testing is not required by the FDA or the US Consumer Product Safety Commission to determine the safety of cosmetic products, yet animals are commonly used to determine levels of skin irritancy, eye tissue damage and toxicity caused by ingredients used in personal care products. Animal testing processes are often painful and cause a multitude of side effects, but they have not been formally validated for dependability, and they are widely criticized for being inaccurate predictors of human hazard. Viable alternatives, such as in vitro tests using human cells and computer modeling combined with a wealth of existing safety data, render animal testing unnecessary. Look for the Leaping Bunny label.

Environmental Issues

Most moisturizers are sold in plastic containers, a product made from nonrenewable fossil fuels. Too often, these containers aren't recycled and go straight to landfills. Many moisturizers are made from petrolatum, which is derived from the non-renewable resource petroleum.

Additionally, as chemical-laden moisturizers are rinsed down our shower drains, they flush hormone-disrupting chemicals throughout waterways and threaten the reproductive health of fish populations. For example, throughout the U.S. increasing numbers of male fish have been found with immature eggs in their testes. An Environmental Working Group test of wastewater in the San Francisco Bay Area detected hormone-disrupting phthalates, commonly used in moisturizer fragrances, in 18 of 19 examined samples.

Resources:

USDA National Organic Program: www.ams.usda.gov/nop

Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics: www.leapingbunny.org

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics: www.safecosmetics.org

The Consumer's Union Guide to Environmental Labels: www.eco-labels.org

Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database: www.cosmeticsdatabase.com