History

History

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics consumer campaign began in 2002 with the release of a report, "Not Too Pretty: Phthalates, Beauty Products and the FDA".

• For the report, environmental and public health groups contracted with a laboratory to test 72 name-brand, off-the-shelf beauty products for the presence of phthalates, a family of industrial chemicals linked to permanent birth defects in the male reproductive system.

• The lab found phthalates in nearly three quarters of the products tested, though the chemicals were not listed on any of the labels. A second report, "Pretty Nasty", documented similar product test results in Europe.

• In October 2005, the Environmental Working Group released "Skin Deep: A Safety Assessment of Ingredients in Personal Care Products" (website). This computer investigation into the health and safety assessments on more than 10,000 personal care products found major gaps in the regulatory safety net for these products. Also available is an online rating system that ranks products on their potential health risks and the absence of basic safety evaluations. The core of the analysis compares ingredients in 7,500 personal care products against government, industry, and academic lists of known and suspected chemical health hazards.