The Story of Stuff Project

Excerpt of article written by Annie Leonard & Stacy Malkan for the Huffington Post

What a couple of weeks it’s been! More than 200,000 of you have watched the Story of Cosmetics since its launch July 21, and we’ve received an outpouring of support — from cancer survivors, salon workers who’ve been harmed by chemical exposures on the job, green business owners and people around the world who are thanking us for raising the debate about toxic chemicals in the shampoos, deodorants and lotions we rub on our bodies every day.

The introduction of the Safe Cosmetics Act on the same day as the film premiere provides a vehicle to organize this energy into action. There are real opportunities ahead to shift the $50 billion beauty industry in a safer, more sustainable direction‘

Surprise, surprise:  the big cosmetics companies aren’t such big fans of the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010—legislation introduced yesterday to more strictly regulate their business—or of our new movie. The Personal Care Products Council went so far as to issue a statement calling The Story of Cosmetics a “repugnant and absurd…shockumentary.” Whoa!

There’s a good reason the cosmetics industry doesn’t like all the attention it’s getting:  for years, they’ve been largely left alone to decide what’s safe to put in their products. You know, things like lead in lipstick. Neurotoxins in body spray. Carcinogens in baby wash.

Now that’s repugnant!

Yesterday, the industry front group released their own plan for “reforming” cosmetics industry regulation—basically a lame, watered-down version of the kinds of changes that would really help to make our products safer and healthier.

To learn more about the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010, click here, or check out Stacy’s blog to learn more about the industry press conference.

Now is a critical time to really turn up the volume on personal care product safety and to demand that Congress forces cosmetics companies to get the neurotoxins and carcinogens out of our personal care products.

We got a great start yesterday:  thanks to you, more than 50,000 people have watched The Story of Cosmetics over the last 24 hours and thousands more have taken action to make sure we get these nasty toxics out of our products. Yay!

In the next week, we want at least 100,000 more people to watch the film and add their voices to the call to clean up the cosmetics industry.

Will you help us get there?

Just keep doing what you’re doing—posting the video on your Facebook or Twitter, forwarding it to friends, family and colleagues, writing about it on your blog, shouting the url from the rooftops!  It also really helps when you comment on blog posts that mention the film.

And of course, make sure that you visit the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics website to sign a letter to your Member of Congress. Make your voice count!

Lawmakers Debating Whether FDA Should Step Up Regulation of Makeup

By JOYCE FRIEDEN, MedPage Today

July 22, 2010—

Congress and the cosmetics industry are both calling for tighter regulation of the chemicals used in cosmetics and other personal care products due to concerns over possible carcinogens and other toxic ingredients.

In Congress, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) introduced a bill on Tuesday calling for cosmetics makers to register with the federal government and for larger cosmetics firms to pay user fees to enforce the regulation. The Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 also would require all ingredients in a cosmetic product to be listed on the product’s label and would give the Secretary of Health and Human Services two years to develop a list of prohibited or restricted ingredients.

Cosmetics manufacturers would be required to notify the federal government of consumers who reported experiencing adverse health effects from their cosmetics and to use alternatives to animal testing of products.

Schakowsky said during a teleconference Wednesday that she introduced her bill — which was cosponsored by Reps. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) — because “Americans need to know that their cosmetics and personal care products don’t contain chemicals that could harm them.”

She noted that cosmetics manufacturers aren’t currently required to list all their ingredients on the package, “and when investigators have gone looking, they have turned up toxic chemicals: A recent Chicago Tribune investigation sent skin lightening creams to a lab for testing and found dangerous levels of mercury — a banned substance — in some of the products.”

Schakowsky said that current cosmetics laws are “woefully out of date, and Americans are at risk of being unknowingly exposed to harmful chemicals.”

For its part, the Personal Care Products Council, a lobbying group for cosmetics manufacturers, released its own plan for regulation in mid-July, which included requiring all cosmetics manufacturing facilities to register with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, to disclose all product ingredients to the FDA, and to report any serious adverse events to the agency. It also would require the FDA to establish safe levels for trace constituents in cosmetic ingredients and products.

Cosmetics Safety May Come Under FDA Scrutiny

The agency also would be required to review the safety of any ingredients used in cosmetics and other personal care products and establish “good manufacturing practice” requirements. The council detailed its proposal in a letter to Congressional leaders urging them to pass the legislation needed to enforce the proposed rules.

Council president and CEO Lezlee Westine said in a statement that although cosmetics “remain among the safest in the marketplace … Nonetheless, we believe it is time to develop a more contemporary approach that includes a greater federal regulatory role … Our consumers deserve multiple layers of protection and transparency.”

Schakowsky said in an email to MedPage Today that she was glad the council saw a need for increased oversight, “particularly given the fact that at the moment, they have virtual free rein to put dangerous chemicals into their products with very little federal intervention.” But she said she didn’t want the council’s letter to overshadow her bill.

“This legislation requires real FDA oversight and relies on independent scientific analysis by the FDA of the manufacturers claims about which ingredients are safe,” she said. “And, most importantly, that safety standard would ban entirely the use of dangerous chemicals in cosmetics — something the cosmetics industry opposes.”

Better regulation of cosmetics also is the focus of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, which on Thursday released a video urging consumers to lobby for safer cosmetic products. The campaign, founded by a coalition of groups including Clean Water Action, the Breast Cancer Fund, and Friends of the Earth, said in a press release that endocrine disruptors, carcinogens and other toxic chemicals are found in many personal care products, including lipstick and baby shampoo.

Copyright © 2010 ABC News Internet Ventures

Lead in Lipstick? Coal Tar in Shampoo? As New Bill Calls for Stricter Rules on Beauty Products, a Debate Between Campaign for Safe Cosmetics Founder and Cosmetics Industry Spokesperson

Do you know what’s in the personal care products that you use? Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) introduced legislation Tuesday night that would toughen safety standards for beauty products and require regular government testing for hazardous ingredients. We host a debate between Stacy Malkan, founder of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and author of Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry, and John Bailey, chief scientist at the Personal Care Products Council and a spokesperson for the cosmetics industry

Skin Deep: Online Cosmetics Safety Database Rates 62,000+ Beauty Products

We speak with Jane Houlihan, vice president for research at the Environmental Working Group and the creator of Skin Deep, an online cosmetics safety database. The database provides safety ratings for more than 62,000 products on the market and receives about one million hits per month.

Actress and Cancer Survivor Fran Drescher Speaks Out in Support of New Bill Seeking Stricter Cosmetics Rules

Actress and cancer survivor Fran Drescher is speaking out in support of the bill introduced by Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D–IL) that would toughen safety standards for beauty products. Drescher is best known for her role as Fran Fine on the long-running former sitcom The Nanny. She is also a cancer survivor and the founder of the group Cancer Schmancer.

By Margot Roosevelt:

“Annie Leonard used to spout jargon. She reveled in the sort of geek-speak that glazes your eyeballs.

Externalized costs, paradigm shifts, the precautionary principle, extended producer responsibility.

That was before she discovered cartoons.

Today the 45-year-old Berkeley activist is America’s pitchperson for a new style of environmental message. Out with boring PowerPoints and turgid reports; in with witty videos that explain complex issues in digestible terms…”

Click here to read the full story!

Excerpt from the New York Times:

CONCORD, Mass. — Henry David Thoreau was jailed here 164 years ago for refusing to pay taxes while living at Walden Pond. Now the town has Jean Hill to contend with.

Mrs. Hill, an octogenarian previously best known for her blueberry jam, proposed banning the sale of bottled water here at a town meeting this spring. Voters approved, with the intent of making Concord the first town in the nation to strip Aquafina, Poland Spring and the like from its stores.

In orchestrating an outright ban, Mrs. Hill, 82, has achieved something that powerful environmental groups have not even tried. The bottled water industry is not pleased; it has threatened to sue if the ban takes effect as planned on Jan. 1. Officials here have hinted that they might not strictly enforce it, but Mrs. Hill, who described herself as obsessed, said that would only deepen her resolve.

“I’m going to work until I drop on this,” she said. “If you believe in something, you have to persist and you have to have a thick skin.”

Read the full article HERE.

US Social Forum – 2nd Edition of Hoodwinked in the Hothouse available in Detroit!

Rising Tide North America and Carbon Trade Watch are pleased to announce the release of the 2nd edition of Hoodwinked in the Hothouse: False Solutions to Climate Change.

The publication is a close-to-comprehensive guidebook to bogus climate change solutions, covering more than 20 technologies and policy approaches pushed by corporations and industry. It includes contributions from the Energy Justice Network, The Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, ETC Group, the Indigenous Environmental Network, Movement Generation, and International Rivers.

A more formal announcement and press release, along with details for ordering the booklet by mail, and a link to the online version of the booklet in both English and Spanish will be forthcoming in July, but for now we wanted to send a special announcement to everyone attending the US Social Forum that you can pick up a copy of the booklet here in Detroit.

Here’s how you can get the booklet in Detroit:

Stopping by our table at the USSF in the Cobo Hall.
At the “Direct Action Strategies for Climate Justice and Community Resilience” workshop we are co-sponsoring with Movement Generation, the Ruckus Society, Zero Waste Detroit, and the Mobilization for Climate Justice West (Thursday, Jun 24, 10:00am Cobo Hall DO-7A).
At the EcoJustice PMA (Friday, June 25, 1-5:30pm in Cobo Hall D3-28).
At the Tar Sands PMA (Wednesday, Jun 23 2010, 1:00pm  Cobo Hall: W2-70)

We’ll probably have them at many other climate justice oriented workshops as well.

We are actively seeking individuals who would be able to take several hundred copies or more for distribution outside the US and Canada; please let me know if you might be able to help.

We also intend to have a limited number of the Spanish language version of Hoodwinked available; please contact me for more details.

Lastly, if you are interested in taking a bunch of booklets (ie, more than 25) please let me know in advance if possible (or visit our table in Cobo Hall) so we can make arrangements.

Many thanks!
~Brian, on behalf of Rising Tide North America
–

Rising Tide North America
Confronting the root causes of climate change
www.risingtidenorthamerica.org

“If we hold up banners saying climate change kills and we want more government action, the very power groups driving the destruction will cheer and might give us even more carbon finance or agrofuels. Instead, we need to mobilise against the false solutions and for real, meaningful actions that will actually cut emissions and deliver climate justice.”