The Cosmetic Pollution Revolution
- by: Caitlin Huynh
- recipient: Unilever, Johnson and Johnson, Procter&Gamble
We live in the age of cosmetic pollution, hundreds of chemicals in the products we use daily don't just go on our bodies, they go into our bodies as well. The scary thing is, almost none of the hundreds of chemcials are safe for us. The David Sazuki Foundation reports that that one in eight of the 82,000 ingredients used in personal care products are industrial chemicals, including carcinogens, pesticides, reproductive toxins, and hormone disruptors. An average Canadian comes into contact with dozens of products daily. The prolonged exposure definitely disrupts the regulation of our body. There is a great lack of regulation within the cosmetic industry, the FDA does not inspect any products and only make rules that companies should, but don't have to follow. Not every ingredient used in each product is listed on the label, and consumers cannot recognize more than 90% of the complicated names listed. Even worse, only 20% of the chemicals used are inspected for health and safety. What about the other 80% that could potentially, and most likely are, a danger to us? Parabens, perservatives, parfums, dyes, and several other chemcials are things to watch out for.
Corporations need to put consumer health above economical conviences. Why does North America only have 8 of 12000 chemicals banned while the UK has 1000 of 12000 chemicals banned? We need to step forward and demand for safer ingredients to be used in our products. Its time to make a change in this industry and demand that corporations be more transparent about the ingredients going into our products and ultimately into our bodies.
Unilever Canada Consumer Services
PO Box 38 Saint John
New Brunswick
E2L 3X1
To whom it may concern,
As a regular consumer of your Unilever products, the timeless Vaseline brand is a common sight in my household. My family has continued to use your products, as we are very impressed with the companies’ investment in Canadian food banks, the Dove Campaign, and your efforts to reduce waste. However, after a recent organic chemistry lesson in school, I began having a few concerns about the chemicals found in your products that I use in my daily routine. One chemical that concerns me most is the use of preservatives, specifically formaldehyde and formaldehyde releasers. Unfortunately, I found DMDM Hydantoin, an antimicrobial formaldehyde releaser preservative, as a listed ingredient in the Vaseline Total Moisture Cocoa Radiant lotion. Lotion is a product used daily in large amounts and with prolonged exposure to this preservative, can be very harmful to consumers. Several studies done by the US National Cancer Institute and the United Nations International Agency for Research on Cancer has listed skin, eyes, nose and throat irritation, nasopharyngeal cancer and leukemia as effects of formaldehyde. For more information on the dangers of formaldehyde, I invite you to visit my website Deadlyrelease.weebly.com
Many other companies have taken the step forward in using a safer preservative called phenoxyethanol. Nivea, Cetaphil, Olay, and Biore are only a few of the many corporations changing for the better. The public deserves to know what goes onto, and into, their body. For that, I commend your company for listing this form of formaldehyde on your labels. Although it should be noted on the label that it is a formaldehyde releaser since DMDM Hydantoin is not a common household name. Also, when conducting research online about the ingredients used in your products, I realised that your UK site had ingredient information readily available (it was listed under Useful Links). When I switched to the Canadian site however, ingredient information could not be found. It would be very beneficial to consumers if Unilever Canada were more transparent about ingredients going into each product. I also invite you to view my petition at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/893/872/411/the-cosmetic-pollution-revolution/ which has gained more than 30 signatures in two days.
I hope for a response in the near future, as I would like to continue using your products once the use of formaldehyde releasing preservatives has been addressed.
Warm regards,
Caitlin Huynh
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