By Alyssa Figueroa, Campaigns Coordinator
Last month, the American Cancer Society and the Personal Care Products Council denied our demands to protect women in cancer treatment from the toxic cosmetics used in their Look Good, Feel Better® program.
It’s time to push for an overhaul of our inadequate laws that allow cosmetic companies to use harmful chemicals in their products in the first place. Right now, the regulation of cosmetics in the United States is a sham. We know that cosmetic products on store shelves contain cancer-linked chemicals like carcinogens and hormone disruptors. And while the European Union has banned 1,300 chemicals from use in cosmetics, the U.S. has banned fewer than one dozen.
But a Senate committee is currently evaluating a new bill to reform these broken laws. Yet, this bill, in its current form, would largely allow the industry to continue to regulate itself.
Because Congress hasn’t passed a cosmetic law since 1938, this is our unique chance to demand meaningful regulation of the $71 billion cosmetics industry.