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2005-Campaign
for Safe Cosmetics Update and Action Alert
Dear
Safe Cosmetics Supporter:
In
recent months the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has continued to make great
strides in pushing for safer products and smarter laws to protect our health
from toxic chemicals. This campaign is catching fire across the country and
getting the attention of cosmetics companies, state and federal governments, and
the media.
Below
are a few examples of the progress we’ve made so far with the help of people
like you and an important action you can take this month to push the company
that brought us the Avon Lady to make its products safer.
In
this update:
TAKE
ACTION: Tell Avon to Clean Up Its Act! Take Action to Support
Shareholder Resolutions for Safe Cosmetics and Transparency at Avon’s Annual
Meeting in May
and Write CEO Andrea Jung
Campaign
News:
-
Help
Us Reach 100 Signers of Compact for Safe Cosmetics
-
FDA
Responds to Campaign Pressure, Issues Warning on Untested Products
-
Teens
Push for Safer Cosmetics
-
New
Study: Hazardous Chemicals Commonly Used in Cosmetics Building Up in U.S.
Homes
-
California
Launches Effort for Safe Cosmetics Legislation
TAKE
ACTION!Click
here to take action: http://www.safecosmetics.org//actioncenter/avonsh.cfm
In
response to pressure from the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, some of the world’s
largest cosmetics companies, including Revlon and L’Oreal, have agreed to
globally reformulate their products when they work to meet the tough European
Union safety standards that ban carcinogens, mutagens and reproductive toxins
from cosmetics and other personal care products. This is a good first step
forward toward the goal of safer cosmetics. However, Avon is refusing to make
this same important commitment.
Avon
shareholders will meet in early May to vote on two important resolutions brought
by Domini Social Investments and Trillium Asset Management, leaders in the
socially responsible investment community that are concerned about toxic
chemicals and our health. The first resolution asks Avon to reformulate their
products globally to meet the new EU Cosmetics Directive.
In
addition, our ally, Breast Cancer Action and the Follow the Money Campaign are
working to get Avon and other companies to be more transparent about the money
raised for breast cancer research]. The second resolution shareholders will be
voting on is a proposal about the need for transparency in the company's breast
cancer fundraising and charitable giving programs.
SHOW
YOUR SUPPORT FOR THESE RESOLUTIONS:
SHAREHOLDERS:
If you own Avon Shares or think that your mutual fund might hold shares, click
here to take action: http://www.safecosmetics.org/docUploads/Sample%20Avon%20Shareholder%20Letter%2Edoc
Tell
Avon CEO Andrea Jung to Get Toxic Chemicals Out of Avon Products: Even if
you don’t own Avon shares, your voice makes a difference! Click here to take
action! http://action.safecosmetics.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=13271
Campaign
News and Updates
1)Help
Us Reach 100 Signers of Compact for Safe Cosmetics: More than 90 cosmetics
companies have joined the Compact for Safe Cosmetics, a pledge to remove toxic
chemicals linked to cancer, birth defects and other health problems from their
cosmetics since the campaign began in spring of 2004. Help us reach 100! Visit
our list of compact signers http://www.safecosmetics.org/companies/signers.cfm.
Don’t see your favorite company listed? Let them know you want their
commitment to make safer products by giving them a call or writing them today!
You can often find their address and/or customer service # on the back of their
packaging. Let them know the future of cosmetics is clean, green and healthy and
that they should sign on to the Compact for Safe Cosmetics http://www.safecosmetics.org/companies/compact_with_america.cfm.
2)
FDA Responds to Pressure, Issues Warning on Untested Products:
Acting on a petition filed last June by
our founding member, Environmental
Working Group (EWG) and pressure from the Campaign, the Food and Drug
Administration issued an unprecedented warning to the cosmetics industry stating
that the Agency is serious about enforcing the law requiring companies to inform
consumers that personal care products have not been safety tested. Such an
enforcement action could ultimately require companies to issue consumer warnings
for the more than 99 percent of personal care products on the market that have
not been publicly assessed for safety, as documented in a 2004 EWG assessment of
ingredients in nearly 7,500 products, Skin Deep http://www.ewg.org/reports/skindeep/.
Learn more http://www.safecosmetics.org/news/onnotice.cfm.
3)
Teens Push for Safe Cosmetics in California: A project of the Marin Cancer
Project, Safe Cosmetics Campaign: Marin launched in January 2005 as a
coalition of Marin County high school-aged teens supporting the national
Campaign for Safe Cosmetics working toward safer, cleaner personal care and
beauty products and smarter laws that protect our health and our families from
toxic chemicals. The Campaign’s hope is that young women and men – perhaps
one of the biggest groups who buy and wear makeup and are prime consumer targets
– will be inspired to educate their community and spread awareness about their
rights to health. Their final Campaign action will be their May 4, 2005
presentation of the Safe Cosmetics Bill of Rights. Signed by Campaign
members, community leaders and partners, the document will demand their right to
health and right to safe cosmetics and better standards and practices within the
beauty industry such as voluntary self-enforcement of existing laws regarding
labeling and safety testing. The teens will speak about their initial
involvement, interest and all the actions in which they participated advocating
for safe cosmetics. For more information about Safe Cosmetics Campaign:
Marin, visit www.marincancerproject.org.
Teens
in Montana Educate Peers About Safe Cosmetics: GUTS! Girls Using Their
Strengths, a teen leadership program of Women’s Voices for the Earth is
organizing a “Make Your Own Safe Cosmetics” fair in April in Montana to
teach their peers about the problem of toxic chemicals in health and beauty
products. The girls also created artists boxes, now located in stores around
western Montana, to gather cosmetic packaging so the girls can collect
information about the products people are using. The packaging will also be used
in a community art project. For more information on GUTS, visit http://www.womenandenvironment.org/issuesguts.htm
4)
New Study: Hazardous Chemicals Commonly Used in Cosmetics Building Up in U.S.
Homes: A new study that analyzed dust samples collected from homes in 7
different states across the U.S. was released in March, revealing broad-based
contamination from hazardous industrial chemicals that leach from cosmetics and
other everyday household products. Thirty-five chemicals were detected in
the household dust samples, including:
*
Alkyphenols: common ingredients in personal care products such as hair dyes.
Alkyphenols are widely recognized to mimic natural estrogen hormones leading to
altered sexual development in some organisms.
*
Phthalates: found in personal care products such as perfume, nail polish, and
hairspray. These chemicals disrupt reproductive systems in animals, particularly
in male offspring, and can contribute to male infertility. They have been linked
to asthma and respiratory problems in children.
Ten
Massachusetts homes were included in this study, prompting calls for Governor
Romney to require safer ingredients in cosmetics and personal care products.
TAKE ACTION: Urge Governor Romney to safeguard our health from toxic
chemicals in cosmetics and other common household goods. For more information,
visit: http://www.healthytomorrow.org/safer_ma.htm
5)
California launches effort for Safe Cosmetics Legislation: In response to
weak federal regulation of the cosmetics industry, women’s health and
environmental health advocates are working to pass legislation in California to
improve the safety practices of cosmetics companies. Working with groups like
Breast Cancer Fund and National Environmental Trust, Senator Carole Migden
authored Senate Bill 484, which would require cosmetics manufacturers to
disclose ingredients linked to cancer and reproductive harm, give the State the
authority to immediately require a review of ingredients and ingredient
combinations; and allow the State to promulgate health and safety standards –
in occupational settings -- based on their investigations.
Your
help is needed to help secure passage of this groundbreaking legislation. If you
live in California, please tell your State Assemblymember and Senator that
companies should not hide cancer causing chemicals and reproductive toxins from
the State or their consumers.
TAKE
ACTION: Support the California Safe Cosmetics Legislation: http://www.breastcancerfund.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=kwKXLdPaE&b=488581&action=2044&template=x.ascx
Thank
you for helping us make poison-free cosmetics and body care products available
to everyone!
Keep
an eye out for future updates and alerts, click here http://www.safecosmetics.org/action/index.cfmfor
more information on how you can take action in your community, and help spread
the word about this campaign by clicking here http://action.safecosmetics.org/tellafriend/.
You
can also find out more about the health impacts of the chemicals in your
favorite products and find safer alternatives by visiting our online searchable
database Skin Deep http://www.safecosmetics.org/facts/skindeep.cfm.
To
a clean, green, healthy and beautiful future,
The
Campaign for Safe Cosmetics
www.SafeCosmetics.org
PLEASE
FORWARD FAR AND WIDE.
About
the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics:
The
Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is a coalition of public health, educational, faith,
labor, women's, environmental and consumer groups. The mission of the Campaign
for Safe Cosmetics is to protect the health of consumers and workers by
requiring the cosmetics industry to phase out the use of chemicals that are
known or suspected to cause cancer, genetic mutation or reproductive harm.
FOUNDING
ORGANIZATIONAL MEMBERS OF THE CAMPAIGN INCLUDE: Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow,
The Breast Cancer Fund, Commonweal, Cancer Prevention Coalition, Environmental Working Group, Friends of the
Earth, Health Care Without Harm, National Black Environmental Justice Network,
National Environmental Trust and Women's Voices for the Earth.
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