Protect yourself from toxics in cosmetics when the FDA won't

Many savvy consumers know to watch out for toxic chemicals like BPA in baby bottles and flame retardants in mattresses. But the health threat extends to the shampoo in your shower and the lipstick in your purse.

Just as consumers have to be careful when shopping for those bottles and mattresses, they have to watch out for the ingredients in the cosmetics because the Food and Drug Administration isn’t doing it for them.

The European Commission has banned 1,100 chemicals from beauty products. The FDA has banned just nine of them, according to a story in the Vail Daily News.

The FDA, for example, has done nothing about lead contaminated lipstick.

“This leaves a vast number of known carcinogens, mutagens, reproductive toxins and hormone-disrupting chemicals in personal care products in the U.S.,” said Dr. Ann Blake, an independent consultant who works with governments, occupational health, public health and environmental advocates to find viable alternatives to toxic chemicals in manufacturing and consumer products.

Stacy Malkan, author of Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry and co-founder of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, suggests looking out for your health by buying from companies who have signed the Compact for Safe Cosmetics. Companies participating in the compact have pledged not to use those chemicals banned in Europe.

“More than 1,000 companies are on the list, but none of the major mainstream brands have signed,” Malkan said. “I avoid products made by L’Oreal, Proctor and Gamble, Avon, Estee Lauder, Revlon and Unilever —all these companies can do better.”

Look for beauty products that have ingredient labels you can read and avoid ingredients that are obviously synthetic chemicals. If you can’t pronounce an ingredient, you probably shouldn’t be putting it on your skin.

“I look for indicator chemicals,” Malkan said. “These may not be the most toxic ingredients, but they indicate that the company can definitely do better. Avoid products with parabens, fragrance, sodium lauryl or laureth sulfate, PEGs, triethanolamine and DEA.”