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Do Toxic Chemicals Lurk in Your Lipstick?
A searchable website that allows the public to see which cosmetic
products have been reported to contain toxic chemicals known to cause cancer or
reproductive harm is now online.Users can search the California Safe Cosmetics
Program (CSCP) Product Database by product
name, company name or chemical ingredient. As of November 2013, about 475
companies had submitted product information on roughly 30,000 products to the
California Department of Public Health-run program.The website also includes educational
information about how exposure to chemicals can affect health and what is known
about specific chemicals.Inclusion in the website does not necessarily
mean that a product has been shown to cause cancer or other harmful health
effects because products that contain even low levels of potentially harmful
chemicals must report to the program. The website does not list the amount of
the reportable chemicals in products.The website is intended to make
information reported bycosmetics companies under the California Safe Cosmetics
Act of 2005 publically available. The law requires cosmetics companies to
report to the program if their products are sold in California, the company has
more than $1 million per year in aggregate cosmetic sales, and products
containing any chemical ingredient that has been found to cause cancer or
reproductive harm.California’s Safer Consumer Products initiative took effect Oct. 1, 2013. Under the new
regulations, the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) will develop a
set of products, called “priority products,” that contain one of about 150 toxic chemicals — such as bisphenol A, a chemical known to
cause reproductive toxicity found in baby bottles, food and beverage packaging
and CDs, among other products — included on the list. Regulators will ask
manufacturers of priority products to evaluate the design of these products and
to replace these chemicals with safer alternatives if feasible.By April, DTSC will select up to five
priority products based upon such factors as the extent of their use, the
potential for public exposure to the toxic ingredient, and how the products
eventually are disposed.
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