AR-News: (U.S.) testing personal-care products

[Mary Finelli]

HAIR-RAISING NEWS
Shampoos and Other Personal Products May Pose Health Risks
Daily Grist, June 8, 2004


Do you know how toxic your shampoo is?  Many personal-care products contain 
ingredients whose health effects are untested or, worse, ingredients known 
to pose health risks or even cause cancer, according to a new report from 
the Environmental Working Group and other nonprofits.  Only 11 percent of 
the 10,500 chemical ingredients used in personal-care products in the U.S. 
-- a category that includes deodorant, toothpaste, and makeup -- have been 
tested for safety, and those tests were not overseen by the feds but rather 
by an industry scientific review board.  EWG found that a number of shampoos 
and dark hair dyes contain known or probable human carcinogens.  Most 
individual ingredients don't pose worrisome risks, the report says, but 
because people use many different products each day -- an average of 10 for 
U.S. adults -- risks could add up.  The report authors argue that 
personal-care products should be subjected to the same sort of testing 
required for additives and pesticide residues in food.  But until they are, 
EWG has compiled a product guide that tells people which products are most 
safe and which are best avoided.

straight to the source:  Scripps Howard News Service, Joan Lowy, 07 Jun 2004
http://www.gristmagazine.com/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=2577

straight to the source:  San Francisco Chronicle, Jane Kay, 08 Jun 2004
http://www.gristmagazine.com/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=2580

straight to the product guide:  Skin Deep
http://www.ewg.org/reports/skindeep/browse_products.php

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