The Kennebec Journal

February 22

Women push for regulation of cosmetic chemicals

BY AMY CALDER Staff Writer

WATERVILLE -- The young women want more government regulation of the chemicals in their shampoo, lotions, cosmetics and other personal care products.

They also want better labeling on those products so that people know exactly what they're putting on their bodies.

On Sunday, the group of women from Colby and Unity colleges, Waterville Senior High School, Maine Women's Lobby & Policy Center and Hardy Girls, Healthy Women, packaged up 12 such products and mailed them from the Waterville Post Office to an environmental testing laboratory in California.

Hairspray, lipstick, body wash, shampoo, conditioner and hair color were among the items they sent.

"As young people, we're coming together to put our cosmetics on trial," said Anne Sheldon, a community organizer for the Maine Women's Lobby.

Sheldon said some toxins in common products are linked to women's reproductive health problems such as early puberty, breast cancer, ovarian and uterine abnormalities and impaired fertility or infertility.

"The European Union has banned more than 1,000 ingredients from cosmetics, while the United States has banned only 10," Sheldon said.

The group of women was organized by the Maine Women's Lobby, a nonprofit organization trying to improve the lives of Maine women and girls through public policy and leadership development.

Sheldon said the group will receive the test results in 10 days.

"In early April we plan to have an event in the Waterville area and unveil the results and talk about the impact."

Colby junior Michelle Russell got involved in the group after doing an internship with the Environmental Health Strategy Center, a nonprofit organization in Portland, as part of her Jan Plan program.

Initially she studied flame retardants in plastics but then looked at personal care products and the lack of information contained in labeling of those products.

"It's pretty brutal," Russell said. "There's a whole lot that we don't know and the industry has a lot of trade secrets they don't disclose. People sort of assume the products are regulated and safe. It's terrifying."

An environmental studies major, Russell, 21, of Hancock, N.H., said the U.S. needs better accountability.

"I feel like it's really affecting the health of our nation," she said.

She and Colby students Blair Braverman and Sarah Hart studied the issue as part of a course they took with Colby Professor Gail Carlson about environment and human health.

"I'd like to see legislation that puts priority on human health and on research," Braverman, 21, a junior from Davis, Ca., said.

Hart, also 21 and a senior from Santa Barbara, Ca., wants to see a focus on precautions.

"A chemical should be proven safe before it's used, as opposed to using it until it's proven safe," she said.

Carlson, a visiting assistant professor and research scientist in Colby's Environmental Studies Program, said the FDA does not adequately regulate personal care products.

"So we have a real safety gap as far as monitoring what's in our products," she said. "We also have a knowledge gap."

Carlson said Maine is ahead of some federal regulations. In 2008, Maine passed the Kid-safe Products Act which established an innovative and more protective system for regulating toxic chemicals in children's products, she said.

What is needed, and what the young women Sunday are pushing for, according to Carlson, is strong federal reform so that the FDA adequately regulates ingredients in cosmetics and other personal care products -- and that unsafe chemicals do not make it into the products in the first place.

Waterville Senior High School sophomore Amelia Remillard, 16, and junior MacKenzie Riley, 16, did research on chemicals in personal care products as part of a Hardy Girls, Healthy Women project and presented their findings at a Girls Unlimited! conference last year. The girls attended Sunday's event with Jackie Dupont of Hardy Girls.

"The issue is definitely that people aren't aware of what they're putting on their faces," Remillard said.

Some of the women came dressed in costume. Unity College student Chelsea Ardle wore a cardboard box in the shape of a shampoo bottle bearing the question "Ingredients???" Sarah Austin, also a Unity student, came dressed as a silver makeup compact.

Amy Calder -- 861-9247

acalder@centralmaine.com