We’ve all heard the recent reports of companies claiming to have all natural and organic products, increasing their prices to the consumer and then failing the independent testing done to assure that products are indeed as “Organic” as they claim to be.
How are consumers protected from this scam? Many shoppers accept paying higher prices for higher quality products, and that usually means healthy, natural, and organic. People purchase these products for a reason; they do not want the harsh chemicals, by-products or preservatives typically found in run-of-the-mill items. I am one such mom that is adamant about organic products for my daughter, especially in the Health and Beauty Care section. Too many of the well-known manufacturers use science-based rather than nature-based components in their baby lines. I purchase my baby products at Sprouts or Whole Foods stores with the belief that they are indeed safer and subject to more stringent testing but…one never knows for sure, until now!
I recently came across the website called Skin Deep Beauty which evaluates every ingredient in most every product on the market when it comes to health and beauty care. After evaluation, it then give the products a ranking from 0-10 with 0-2 being low-hazard, 3-6 being moderately hazardous and 7-10 being highly hazardous. It breaks all of the items down into categories and then into further subcategories to help consumers search. You can also enter specific ingredients to see what testing has shown regarding their safety and you can search by product name to find specific items you are currently using. This site evens breaks down every ingredient and states what problems, diseases, etc. each of its ingredients have been linked to in testing. It is truly a wealth of information about what we are putting onto and into our bodies.
Thankfully, the products that I have purchased were all in the very low hazard group, meaning they are indeed what they claim to be; organic, natural and SAFE.
This company is not for profit and they are funded by donations and sponsorships only. They do some political work trying to get laws changed for testing, producing and manufacturing of health care products as well. They offer companies a Compact for Safe Cosmetics that they can sign to declare:
That all of the cosmetics and personal care products made by our company anywhere in the world meet the formulation standards and deadlines set by the European Union Directive 76/768/EEC to be free of chemicals that are known or strongly suspected of causing cancer, mutation or birth defects.
To implement substitution plans that replace hazardous materials with safer alternatives within three years. We will accomplish this by:
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Conducting an inventory of potential chemicals of concern in our products (or byproducts) to determine their toxicity to living things, their persistence in the environment, their ability to increase in concentration in the food chain, their contamination of our bodies, or qualities they possess that pose hazards including carcinogens, endocrine disrupters, sensitizers, mutagens, reproductive toxins, developmental toxins and neurotoxins
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Developing an aggressive substitution plan and timeline: to move to safer materials, prioritizing for substitution those compounds internationally recognized as most toxic; to provide for an ongoing review of safer materials and chemicals as effective, cost-competitive alternatives are available, and; to work with upstream suppliers to provide toxicity data on chemicals in products.
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Publicly reporting on progress to meet these goals.
You can search the signers to see if companies that produce your most widely-used health and beauty care products have agreed to the compact.
By utilizing this resource and others like it, consumers have a watch-dog that can alert them to the dangers and false-claims by untrustworthy manufacturers trying to make a quick buck off of the “green” movement. Thank you to Skin Deep, please keep up the wonderful work!
