Image: www.notjustaprettyface.org
Stacy came to the subject when working as an investigative journalist in the Colorado Rockies where she wrote about the use of pesticides in public places. In 2001, she became the communications director of Health Care Without Harm, an international organization reducing the environmental impact of the health care industry. From there she began her investigation into the cosmetic industry.
Shelagh McNally interviewed Stacy about her book and the ongoing campaign for safer cosmetics.
Green Living Online: How is the book doing?
Stacy Malkan: It’s doing really well and just went into its second printing. I’m getting a lot of requests to speak at universities and high schools across the country. There is a huge interest in this topic. People really want to know what we are putting into our bodies. Many people are newly engaged and interested in this issue.
Phthalates have been in the news quite a lot in the last few months, particularly around baby products.
Scientists have known for 30 years that phthalates are toxic and interfere with the production of testosterone. There are literally hundreds of animal studies that show how phthalate exposure can cause birth defects of the penis, testicular tumours and infertility. So, there’s been concern for a long time but we are just getting around to doing something about it in the USA. California has banned phthalates from children’s toys and several others states are looking at banning them as well.
It’s ironic that we are buying these products thinking we are doing the best for our babies.
The last place we should find toxic chemicals is in the baby shampoo. The beauty industry has a lot to cleaning up to do and it should start with baby products.
Where you surprised when you started doing your research?
I was surprised and upset. We all have a deep connection to these products and great expectations for them. To find out they are mislabelled and toxic, along with the indifference these companies have, was just disturbing. But probably the hardest chapter for me to write was the one about breast cancer because it’s so upsetting to know that companies are using the pink ribbon campaign as a marketing device to sell more products while getting a lot of goodwill running the breast cancer walks. But they continue to use carcinogens.
There are stats saying we are putting as using up to 250 chemicals once we have finished all our grooming. Is that possible?
Many of us are using several products a day from these companies. For the book I went back and looked at my own beauty regime. I was a 17-year old make-up diva and was using 20 products a day. I looked them up in the Skin Deep Database and it turned out I was exposing myself to 200 chemicals per day before I had even gotten on the school bus. I think that’s fairly typical. We’ve done surveys that show the average woman uses between 12 to 20 products per day containing about 160 chemicals.
That’s a lot of chemicals to have on your skin!
It is. There are also a lot of chemicals mixing together with unknown effects. No one is looking at those combinations. They’re not looking at the total exposure and the health effects of repeated exposure to chemicals over time.
Teens in particular are so vulnerable since these chemicals affect their right to reproduce.
That’s a good way to put it -- because these chemicals may indeed be interfering with reproduction. We do see a rising rate of infertility among our young people. Sperm counts are dropping in industrialized countries. So this is absolutely a reproductive issue.
Does price make a difference? Is it safer to avoid cheaper products?
The irony is that some of the most expensive products are not any safer to use than those cheap products. You’re buying the packaging and the marketing. People were upset when they figured this out. But the high end brands use the same basic set of ingredients as the lower end brands. We recently tested one of the highest end brands of lipstick. Christian Dior, Addict comes in the beautiful case. It looks like a little tube of lipstick sitting on a throne. But it also had lead in it. A company representative said at point "lead is only a problem for children." Lead is highly toxic to children but where do they think children come from?
So we need to include mothers into the mix as well.
That’s critically important when it comes to cosmetics. We often think about the children and get mad about toxins in baby shampoo but women of child bearing age are exposed to these chemicals day in and day out. A developing fetus is the most vulnerable of all to the health effects of phthalates and other toxic chemicals. One study from the University of Rochester shows that pregnant women with higher levels of phthalates in their bodies had baby boys with changes in their genitals which scientists described as "feminization of males." It makes sense to just take phthalates out of personal care products, and the good news is that some companies are already doing so.
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