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The
Ugly Side of Pretty
By Rebecca Ephraim, Common Ground.
Posted April 6, 2005.
" Emerging science suggests that untold numbers of cosmetics and
personal care ingredients may be silently and insidiously promoting
cancer, ravaging women's reproductive functions and causing birth defects...
"There's not one
smoking gun that we can point to and say 'it's that personal care product,
that deodorant, that nail polish that is going to give you cancer,"
said Jeanne Rizzo, the executive director of the San Francisco-based
Breast Cancer Fund. "We can say the cumulative exposure -- the aggregate
exposure that we all have to a myriad of personal care products containing
carcinogens, mutagens and reproductive toxins, has not been assessed."...
As activist Charlotte
Brody points out, "Neither cosmetic products nor cosmetic ingredients
are reviewed or approved by the Food and Drug Administration before
they are sold to the public. And the FDA cannot require companies to
do safety testing of their cosmetic products before marketing."
Are
your products safe? "The chemicals in any one consumer
product alone are unlikely to cause harm. But unfortunately, we are
repeatedly exposed to industrial chemicals from many different sources
on a daily basis, including cosmetics and personal care products...
The European Union (EU) has a new law that requires cosmetics companies
to remove chemicals linked to cancer and birth defects from personal
care products by September 2004. When they reformulate their products
in the EU, these companies could make these safer products available
to their other customers around the world as well. That's why the Campaign
for Safe Cosmetics is calling on all cosmetics and personal care companies
to protect our health by phasing out the use of chemicals linked to
cancer, birth defects and other health concerns in every market they
serve." Click
here for actions to take.
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The Breast
Cancer Fund's report State
of the Evidence 2004 concludes that exposure to synthetic
chemicals and radiation has contributed more than previously thought
to the rising incidence of breast cancer.
According to the report, fewer than one in 10 cases of breast
cancer occurs in women born with a genetic predisposition for
the disease. As many as 50 percent of breast cancer cases remain
unexplained by personal characteristics and other traditionally-accepted
risk factors; epidemiologists and other scientists increasingly
believe many cases are linked to environmental factors. This third
edition of the report amasses new evidence from 21 research studies
published since February 2003, adding to existing evidence linking
toxicants in the environment to breast cancer.
This year, 40,000 women in the United States will die from breast
cancer-one death every 13 minutes. The new report was peer-reviewed
by six leading scientists, including a noted scientist from the
International Agency for Research on Cancer, a division of the
World Health Organization.
More
about breast cancer -- causes and prevention fact
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