The Story of Stuff - Annie Leonard [63]
THE MAKEUP OF YOUR MAKEUP
I’m not huge on makeup, perfume, or “beauty products” myself. Maybe you are, and maybe you’re not. But at the very least I bet you use soap, shampoo, conditioner, and lotion. I do. Collectively this Stuff is also known as personal “care” products—but I put “care” in quotes because it’s pretty questionable how much “caring” is going on here.
Here we are, rubbing these products into our pores, sometimes on our lips and eyes. So what’s in them? A lot of nasty surprises and industry secrets is what. Have you ever turned your shampoo bottle or tube of sunscreen around to read the ingredients? Once you get your magnifying glass out, it might as well be written in Klingon, right?
It turns out that every day of her life, the average American woman uses a dozen products that contain 168 chemical ingredients. The average guy is using six products a day, with 85 chemicals in them—with the use of products among men rising.119 Whether they’re drugstore purchases, indulgences from the ritziest cosmetics counter, or even “natural” and “organic” products from your local health food store, they’re almost certain to contain hazardous chemicals.
A 2005 study of thousands of personal care products found that:
One-third of them contained at least one ingredient linked to cancer
Nearly half of them contained an ingredient that is harmful to the reproductive system and to a baby’s development
60 percent of them contained an ingredient that mimics estrogen or can disrupt hormones
More than half of them contained “penetration enhancer” chemicals, which help other chemicals move into the body deeper and faster.120
By law, companies are allowed to keep their trademark scents a secret; they show up on ingredient lists as the mysterious “fragrance.” One example of what’s lurking behind the word are phthalates—proven to disrupt the production of testosterone and cause babies of contaminated mothers to be born with malformed and malfunctioning testicles and penises.121 Even with what we know about these chemicals, in 2002 researchers still found (unlabeled) phthalates in three-quarters of the seventy-two products they randomly tested, including hair spray, deodorant, hair gel, body lotion, and perfumes.122
Other surprises: as the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics put it in a Valentine they sent me last February, “Roses are red, Lipsticks have lead...” In 2006, random tests of lipsticks (again, at all price ranges) found lead at two to four times the levels permitted by the FDA for candy.123 There is absolutely no reason a product that gets applied, eaten away, and then reapplied to our lips should have a neurotoxin like lead in it! Meanwhile, baby shampoos often contain a carcinogen called 1,4-dioxane—it’s in most adult shampoos too, often hidden as an ingredient called sodium laureth sulfate.124
There are particular dangers for specific populations, too. Nail salons overflow with potent toxins; the women who work in them are overwhelmingly nonwhite, often Asian, with an average age of thirty-eight—which means many are of childbearing age.125 The skin-whitening products so popular in Asia frequently contain a carcinogen called hydroquinone, as well as the heavy metals chromium and mercury.126 And the hair relaxers aggressively marketed to African-American women are very toxic. Products that change the shape and color of your hair are right up there at the top of the most hazardous list.127
Isn’t someone regulating this Stuff? The 2005 study found that 87 percent of ingredients have not been assessed for safety by the Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR) panel.128 Now, the CIR is the only body responsible for testing the safety of these products. The FDA doesn’t have the authority to require companies to do safety tests; it can’t even recall personal care products when they’ve been proven to be defective or harmful! As it turns out, the CIR is funded and run by the cosmetics industry through its trade association, the Cosmetic, Toiletry, and Fragrance Association.