Big cosmetics companies are making progress in limiting potentially harmful ingredients in their products but they need to do more, says Environmental Defence, a Toronto group dedicated to protecting the environment and human health. It has ranked five big companies according to their performance on this issue.
Chemicals may be linked to birth defects, cancers
“Earlier this year the United Nations Environment Program and the World Health Organization issued a report—a big scientific review about endocrine disrupting chemicals,” says Maggie MacDonald program manager for toxics at Environmental Defence Canada. “It underlines the fact that evidence is mounting that many of these chemicals may be linked to human health problems such as birth defects and cancers that are tied to the hormonal system.”
The ten chemicals of concern to the group include triclosan, phthalates, parabens and 1,4-dioxane found in cosmetics as well as men and women’s personal care products like shampoos, moisturizers, shaving cream and fragrances.
ListenProctor and Gamble named best
Proctor and Gamble came first out of five companies ranked by Environmental Defence because of its published policies to eliminate several of the chemicals. Estée Lauder and L’Oréal came in last because of the group found a lack of published policies to phase out the ingredients.
Companies should be more forthcoming on their policies, says MacDonald, and she hopes they will notice the rankings.
Situation “not hopeless”
“We hope it will encourage more progress in industry to phase out endocrine-disrupting chemicals,” she says. “We’d love to see phthalates, parabens and chemicals like triclosan completely phased out of cosmetics and personal care products. They pollute the environment as well as the human body. Artifical musks that end up in fragrance as well…
“We want to let people know that it is not an issue that is in any way hopeless. We’re quite optimistic because we are starting to see some change and we know this is in response to public pressure.”
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