How safe are the personal products we use on our bodies? The answer: nobody knows. The cosmetic business is a deregulated wild west.
Canadians put toxics on their skin every day from the cosmetics and other personal care products they use. Thousands of cancer-causing, hormone-disrupting, and allergy-inducing substances have been banned or restricted in European personal care products. Some of these same harmful substances can still be found in Canadian products, but we are not told about everything that's in our products.
It's time that our laws got a serious makeover. Ask the Minister of Health to strengthen and enforce Canada's regulation of toxic chemicals in our personal care products.
To: The Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health
We can't believe that harmful substances are allowed in our cosmetics and personal care products, and that you yourself don't know everything that's in them. That's why we're asking that the Cosmetic Ingredient Hotlist and that ingredient disclosure in Canada be given a make-over. To help us make healthier purchasing decisions we ask that you:
- Expand the Hotlist: Ban all substances banned in Europe, and all substances known or suspected of being cancer-causing, mutagenic, reproductive toxicants, developmental toxicants, neurotoxicants, and hormone disruptors. Canada, like Europe, must also have the law written so it is clear that using Canadian Hotlist-prohibited substances in personal care products, or improperly using Canadian Hotlist-restricted substances in personal care products, is illegal.
- Require disclosure: Manufacturers or distributors should disclose all substances, intentional ingredients and unintentional ingredients (e.g., impurities), in their products without exception, both freely online before products hit the market and on labels.
So in modernizing the Cosmetics Regulations, please ban the worst (with clear legal authority) and ensure that you and we are told everything so that we can all be Just Beautiful.
Thank you.
