The average American uses ten personal care products each and every day. That is a lot of lotions, toothpastes, shampoos and deodorants. Since we are using that much, you would think that we would be sure that the substances that we are using are safe in the long term.
The use of these products can expose us to over 100 different chemicals over the course of a day. Some of these chemicals have even been linked to adverse health effects on their own, including cancer, birth defects and learning disabilities.
Now, a new bill is looking to give the Food and Drug Administration more control over the chemicals that are included in these products. Today, Representative Jan Schakowsky of Illinois and Edward Market of Massachusetts introduced the Safe Cosmetic Act of 2010.
If the bill is passed, it will give the FDA the ability to mandate and protect consumers from potentially harmful products.
It will be interesting to see if the bill passes. Surely, the passing of the bill would be a huge blow to the cosmetic industry, which has gone largely unregulated over the course of the last few decades.
As it stands now, cosmetics companies can use virtually any ingredient in their products without having to go through a pre-market safety assessment.
A number of politicians have been pushing for a similar law, but have not gone as far as to draft a bill. If this bill passes, the FDA will have control over the pre-screening of any cosmetics product.