Check those labels; what’s in your shampoo or makeup?

Think about your morning routine. You wash your hands, shower, and wash your hair, but there are chemicals in those products you use daily that are so toxic that they’re banned in most European countries. Now, there’s a push to ban them in the U.S.

Push for ban

Elena Griffin has a baby at home. After learning about endocrine disruptors, she started going through her cabinets and drawers.

“A lot of makeup brands, or companies that sell makeup brands, they have clean, or they justify clean products with labels, and it’s truly not all clean,” she explained. “I was so devastated because I realized that a lot of the things I had been using or that I thought were healthy were actually not.”

Laura Friedman’s also a mom. She did the same, but for a different reason.

“I was diagnosed with breast cancer in my 30s. I think a lot of us wonder when that happens, whether there was some kind of environmental trigger,” she added.

Friedman is also a California Assembly member. She got a state bill passed banning 26 chemicals in personal care products, like makeup, shampoo, and lotion.  

Endocrine disruptors

Many of those chemicals are endocrine disruptors.

“We know that endocrine disruptors have a link to reproductive cancers,” stated the lawmaker.  

Endocrine disruptors have also been linked to cancers, thyroid disease, infertility, and even developmental delays in babies in utero.

“The EU has banned hundreds of chemicals that were being used in personal care products,” said Friedman. “The Supreme Court, just a few years ago, had a ruling that allows states to act beyond what the FDA and the EPA do.”

WINK News Anchor Lindsey Sablan interviewed Friedman. She asked, “You talk about how the EU already had these standards. Why doesn’t the U.S., and who is not watching this?”

Friedman answered, “That’s a good question. We should. It shouldn’t be that you have to have a bunch of people harmed and then go through the court system for years to prove harm before our federal regulatory agencies take action.”

Personal Care Products Council

Friedman worked with the Personal Care Products Council, which represents different product-makers. The Council said manufacturers are prepared to roll out new formulas when the California law takes effect in January 2025, but that law only applies to California.  

Griffin, who lives in Naples, isn’t waiting on any law. She offered this advice, “Start small, and it doesn’t have to be your favorite product.

A bit of good news – Friedman believes even without a law here in Florida, we’ll see cleaner products because the companies have to change formulas for California.

The Personal Care Products Council sent this statement:

Science and safety are the foundation for everything we do. PCPC continues to work closely with key stakeholders in California to bring the industry closer to global regulatory alignment and to modernize the laws governing our industry. At the federal level, PCPC and our member companies collaborated for more than a decade with a bipartisan group of congressional leaders and broad array of stakeholders to modernize and enhance the FDA’s regulatory authority over our industry and provide the safety reassurances that consumers expect and deserve. We celebrated the enactment of the bipartisan Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act (MoCRA) in December 2022. This landmark legislation revamped FDA oversight for our sector, providing the FDA with enhanced regulatory tools, which are pivotal in ensuring product safety, promoting innovation, and bolstering consumer trust.

Stefanie Harrington | V.P., Public Affairs & Communications, Personal Care Products Council

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