Stacy came to the subject when working as an investigative journalist in the Colorado Rockies where she wrote about the use of pesticides in public places. In 2001, she became the communications director of Health Care Without Harm, an international organization reducing the environmental impact of the health care industry. From there she began her investigation into the cosmetic industry.
Shelagh McNally interviewed Stacy about her book and the ongoing campaign for safer cosmetics.
Green Living Online: How is the book doing?
Stacy Malkan: It’s doing really well and just went into its second printing. I’m getting a lot of requests to speak at universities and high schools across the country. There is a huge interest in this topic. People really want to know what we are putting into our bodies. Many people are newly engaged and interested in this issue.
Phthalates have been in the news quite a lot in the last few months, particularly around baby products.
Scientists have known for 30 years that phthalates are toxic and interfere with the production of testosterone. There are literally hundreds of animal studies that show how phthalate exposure can cause birth defects of the penis, testicular tumours and infertility. So, there’s been concern for a long time but we are just getting around to doing something about it in the USA. California has banned phthalates from children’s toys and several others states are looking at banning them as well.
It’s ironic that we are buying these products thinking we are doing the best for our babies.
The last place we should find toxic chemicals is in the baby shampoo. The beauty industry has a lot to cleaning up to do and it should start with baby products.
Where you surprised when you started doing your research?
I was surprised and upset. We all have a deep connection to these products and great expectations for them. To find out they are mislabelled and toxic, along with the indifference these companies have, was just disturbing. But probably the hardest chapter for me to write was the one about breast cancer because it’s so upsetting to know that companies are using the pink ribbon campaign as a marketing device to sell more products while getting a lot of goodwill running the breast cancer walks. But they continue to use carcinogens.
There are stats saying we are putting as using up to 250 chemicals once we have finished all our grooming. Is that possible?
Many of us are using several products a day from these companies. For the book I went back and looked at my own beauty regime. I was a 17-year old make-up diva and was using 20 products a day. I looked them up in the Skin Deep Database and it turned out I was exposing myself to 200 chemicals per day before I had even gotten on the school bus. I think that’s fairly typical. We’ve done surveys that show the average woman uses between 12 to 20 products per day containing about 160 chemicals.
That’s a lot of chemicals to have on your skin!
It is. There are also a lot of chemicals mixing together with unknown effects. No one is looking at those combinations. They’re not looking at the total exposure and the health effects of repeated exposure to chemicals over time.
Teens in particular are so vulnerable since these chemicals affect their right to reproduce.
That’s a good way to put it -- because these chemicals may indeed be interfering with reproduction. We do see a rising rate of infertility among our young people. Sperm counts are dropping in industrialized countries. So this is absolutely a reproductive issue.
Does price make a difference? Is it safer to avoid cheaper products?
The irony is that some of the most expensive products are not any safer to use than those cheap products. You’re buying the packaging and the marketing. People were upset when they figured this out. But the high end brands use the same basic set of ingredients as the lower end brands. We recently tested one of the highest end brands of lipstick. Christian Dior, Addict comes in the beautiful case. It looks like a little tube of lipstick sitting on a throne. But it also had lead in it. A company representative said at point "lead is only a problem for children." Lead is highly toxic to children but where do they think children come from?
So we need to include mothers into the mix as well.
That’s critically important when it comes to cosmetics. We often think about the children and get mad about toxins in baby shampoo but women of child bearing age are exposed to these chemicals day in and day out. A developing fetus is the most vulnerable of all to the health effects of phthalates and other toxic chemicals. One study from the University of Rochester shows that pregnant women with higher levels of phthalates in their bodies had baby boys with changes in their genitals which scientists described as "feminization of males." It makes sense to just take phthalates out of personal care products, and the good news is that some companies are already doing so.
Click on page 2 to continue reading the interview...
How did we get to this point where we have such a huge industry that is largely unsupervised and self-policing?
The beauty industry has lobbied long and hard to keep unregulated. They’ve been using the same basic recipe of cheap, synthetic petrochemicals for many years that make cheap, effective products. So, there is great resistance to changing, even though the science is emerging on almost on a daily basis showing the health harm associated with some of the chemicals commonly used in cosmetics.
If this was any other industry people would be up in arms. It’s it because it caters to women?
There are some elements of misogyny to this issue. There is also an outdated belief that what we out on our skin doesn’t get into our bodies. We know that’s not true -- chemicals do get absorbed and we ingest them. They are getting into our bodies, just like drugs, just like food but like those two, chemicals also need to be more regulated. People are always surprised to discover there is no safety testing for cosmetics and companies are allowed to use almost any chemical in their personal care products without testing them for safety. People are always mad when they find out about that but there just hasn’t been a lot of awareness with the public.
Is any headway being made around changing the industry and educating the public?
The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is making headway and I see reasons for great hope. I think the industry is changing.We’ve already seen some major changes and it’s just a matter of time before we see some reckoning since this is only going to become more problematic. We are getting so much information on toxicology and new reports are coming forth. New laws are coming out to ban chemicals. The European Union just passed a law that will require toxicity testing for tens of thousands of chemicals so we will be getting even more information in the years to come around health harm. The smart companies are the ones who are looking ahead and paying attention to this issue.
Do you think we will see a growth in the natural products industry?
We are seeing a lot of natural product companies who are innovating truly safe products that don’t rely on petrochemicals. The standards are getting higher all the time and that will raise the safety bar in the industry. I see very positive signs. Teens for Safe Cosmetics are greatly inspiring to me. To see young girls really questions the products they are using and learning the science behind these products while lobbying at the State level is really wonderful.
Aside from educating ourselves, what else can the consumer do?
Vote with your dollar. Choose to give your money to companies making a positive difference rather than those using chemicals. There are some good resources out there to help you find better choices. The Skin Deep Database is an amazing tool where you can look up your product and find alternatives.
But we can’t just shop our way out of the problem. We need to have the government involved in setting standards and putting regulations in place to protect our health. It’s important to get involved politically. It’s a long term project. But there are some positive changes. California is looking at banning lead from lipsticks.
Do you feel confident about getting the government to act quickly enough?
That’s a tough one. We can’t rely just on the government to fix this. But we also can’t do it without the government. Right now it’s moving extremely slowly at the national level and it’s hard to get the USA agencies to do anything to protect the public health. The FDA has been almost completely supportive of the every industry position and unwilling to work with the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics or with consumer groups to take action to protect our health. Even making recommendations to the industry has been very discouraging.
Why is that?
Well they are very close to the cosmetic industry. The industry’s lead spoke person, John Bailey, spent 30 years at the FDA in charge of the office of cosmetic and colour, in charge of the entire division that was supposed to monitor cosmetic safety.
Do events in Europe affect things in the US? They seem to be erring on the side of caution when it comes to chemicals.
Absolutely. Europe has had a huge effect and not just in the cosmetic industry but in other major industries as well - like electronics. A few years ago they banned the really nasty substances -- mercury, lead and cadmium -- from electronics and that was a shock to the US. Companies suddenly woke up and there was some resistance when they felt like Europe was telling them what to do. But there was a gradual coming around and so the electronic industry was changed globally. Products were safer, no one went out of business and we still have electronics.
If we are start buying from European companies, will that get their attention?
I think that kind of thing is getting their attention along with the increasing demand for natural and organic products. The Natural Products industry is growing at a higher rate than the conventional industry. We are starting to see the mainstream companies taking over the natural product companies. Clorox just bought Burt’s Bees for 500 million dollars. L’Oreal (a subsidy of Nestles) bought the Body Shop. Estee Lauder owns Aveda, which has room for improvement in their natural products line.
What kind of cosmetics do you use?
I still use lots of cosmetics. But I did cut out some products like bubble bath and hair dye. I stopped colouring my hair. That was a bit of a challenge. I’ve banned products from all the leading beauty companies: Estee Lauder, Revlon, Proctor Gamble, Unilever, L’Oreal and switched to natural products. It’s not easy to do.
It’s difficult for us to give up our makeup.
We are bombarded with ideal images that we are supposed to look like all these women in the ads - who don’t even look normal. It’s expected you will colour your hair - it’s part of the culture these days. Some women get caught in this whole cycle of spending five times as much for everything and thinking it’s safer and better. Then we find out it isn’t.
How you do stop from being overwhelmed at the enormity of this problem?
Just by taking it one step at a time and reducing the chemical exposure wherever you can.
Shelagh McNally is the editor of Green Living Online. Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry by Stacy Malkan, New Society Publishers, recently won a Silver Medal in the Health/Medicine Category from the Independent Book Seller Awards.
