CANCER CAUSING COSMETICS?

About a year ago, I received a Women’s Health publication from John Muir Health that had a very interesting article in it entitled “Cancer-Causing Cosmetics?”  This article stated that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had recently signed into law the Safe Cosmetics Act, that would, starting in 2007, require any company that manufactures personal care products that contain human carcinogens or reproductive toxins (such as coal tar found in minute amounts in some dandruff shampoos and the phthalates once used in many nail polishes) to report that fact to the state Department of Health Services, which would then post the information online.  California’s legislation is the first of its kind in the nation.  It was closely contested by the cosmetics industry, which says health concerns are unfounded, and hailed by environmentalists, who hope it will spur manufacturers to reformulate products. 

About a month before I had read this article, author Ruth Harvey (formerly Reider) had spoken at our church.  She had mentioned how she had gone into a butcher shop awhile back, and the butcher had told  her how the meat business makes a lot of money from the cosmetic industry.  He said that they buy the slaughterhouse animal waste (i.e. cow brains, ligaments, tendons, skin, bones, etc.) and use it in the manufacturing of their cosmetics. 

While I do not wear cosmetics, and neither do many of my friends, this is a concern for every one of us, as we all use shampoos, perfumes, deodorants, lotions, toothpaste, etc.  I checked out the website below and found that some of the shampoos we used were not in the safest category.  For more info on the pros and cons, click here.

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