Updated April 20, 2024

Have you heard the welcome news?

In 2011, after threats of a boycott, Johnson & Johnson reiterated it’s pledge to slowly phase out the toxic ingredients used in their baby product line by the end of 2013 and announced that it will also reformulate their adult personal care products which include Lubriderm, Aveeno and Neutrogena products, by 2015.

In 2022, this statement was published on the CSC website:  “The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics welcomed the news that Johnson & Johnson will no longer sell its talc-based baby powder globally given our concern – and the concern of consumers everywhere – with the talc-asbestos-cancer connection.”

Campaign for Safe Cosmetics

A large coalition of health and environmental groups, called The Campaign For Safe Cosmetics started calling for the removal of several dangerous and possibly carcinogenic chemicals from personal care products in 2009. Formaldehyde, 1,4 dioxan, triclosan, phthalates and parabens are just a few of the “chemicals of concern” according to the Environmental Working Group who is part of that coalition. Their website, www.ewg.org/skindeep contains a database of 75,000 personal care products that they have rated from 0-10 for toxicity levels.

From the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics website:

“BCPP’s Campaign for Safe Cosmetics protects people and the planet from toxic chemicals by educating the public; transforming the beauty industry to make products safer; and advocating for health-protective laws that benefit everyone regardless of where they live, work, or shop.

As the original trailblazer for safe cosmetics, we focus on eliminating dangerous chemicals linked to cancer and other serious health concerns from beauty and personal care products once and for all.”

Personal care products fall under the “cosmetics” label, which includes deodorant, lotions, make-up, oral hygiene products and more. The FDA does not test personal care products for safety – they rely on the individual companies to do that.

The Campaign For Safe Cosmetics website www.safecosmetics.org includes articles of interest on various products and ingredients to help educate the consumer. They have developed a “Red List” for businesses to assess personal care products that they sell, a new list of Top 20 Toxic Ingredients in Cosmetics, and a new Non-Toxic Black Beauty Database.

They state that many potentially hazardous chemicals are banned from personal care products in Europe and they are hoping the Untied States will follow suit. In fact, many American companies have two versions of the same product –  one for the stricter European market and one for the U.S market.

There are well over 50,000 chemicals in use in the United States today and the majority of these have not been tested for safety, according to the magazine Scientific American.

Check Labels, Educate Yourself, Know the Toxins

Our bodies don’t know how to process those chemicals we take in on a daily basis. If we are not good at detoxifying (which a lot of us aren’t), those chemicals may get stored in our fat cells, day by day, year after year. Should we be surprised then when disease develops?

Toxins have no place in personal care or home care products.

How much do you know about the products that you use?

Please start reading labels and educate yourself. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and the Enviromental Working Group websites are excellent resources to check products and purchase personal care products that are free of toxins.