CSC Heralds Business Network As Next Foray In Safe Cosmetics Crusade

The Campaign For Safe Cosmetics promotes the companies that fulfilled its Compact for Safe Cosmetics program – which has been phased out – and announces a new business network to “help educate others in the industry, consumers and policymakers and calls for a stronger, greener market.”

Officially closing its voluntary industry Compact for Safe Cosmetics program, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics announces what it is touting as the next step toward safer and greener cosmetics – The Safe Cosmetics Business Network.

In a Nov. 30 report, the San Francisco-based organization announced that the network will serve as a “vehicle to move the safe cosmetics conversation forward, share resources and show collective support for the mission of the Campaign.”

In the report, titled “Market Shift: The Story of the Compact for Safe Cosmetics and the Growing Demand for Safer Products,” the organization discusses the new effort, which already has 325 member companies including retailers, salons, beauty professionals and manufacturers.

“The Business Network is an alliance of businesses that helps educate others in the industry, consumers and policymakers and calls for a stronger, greener market,” the Campaign says.

In explaining the impetus behind the network, the Campaign says that its Compact effectively brought businesses and the non-profit sectors together, and they have made substantial progress.

However, it notes, “clearly there is still work to be done” and that work is best carried out by an alliance of like-minded businesses. “We believe our greatest impact can now come from working with these businesses to further educate the public, decision makers and industry laggards,” the organization says.

The organization laid the groundwork for launch of the network earlier this year when it announced plans to sunset its personal-care product safety and transparency pledge and introduce a program offering “more meaningful engagement” (Also see "Campaign Phases Out Safe Cosmetics Compact; Fresh Program In The Works" - HBW Insight, 7 Feb, 2011.).

Members of the network agree on several points – to “stimulate the innovation of safe, non-toxic personal-care products;” “protect consumers, workers and the environment from exposure to chemicals linked to cancer, reproductive harm and other adverse health impacts;” and “ensure everyone in the U.S. has access to safe personal-care products, regardless of geography or income.”

Network members will help achieve those goals by educating throughout the supply chain – “from consumers to ingredient suppliers to fellow businesses – about the importance and availability of safer personal-care products and the need for safety data and transparency about cosmetics ingredients,” according to the Campaign.

The group will spread its message through emails, newsletters, OpEds, blog posts, social media, webinars and events ranging from health fairs to Congressional hearings, it says.

New members of the network are encouraged to sign up at SafeCosmetics.org/business. The Campaign notes that the network is free to join and does not offer any type of certification or seals of approval.

For this reason, the initiative requires “strong” public support to thrive, and the organization believes that growing consumer awareness will provide that support.

“The growing number of educated consumers will undoubtedly favor companies that join the Business Network, and they will also undoubtedly scrutinize businesses to ensure that the commitment is authentic,” the Campaign says.

Compact Successes Identified

In its Market Shift report, the Campaign reflects on the successes of the Compact during its span from 2004 through August of this year, noting more than 1,500 companies signed onto the pact in that time.

According to the organization, the Compact served as a “prime example” of the type of work that can be accomplished when businesses and the non-profit sectors work together.

The Campaign notes that 321 companies, which it dubs “champions,” met the goals of the Compact, which included avoiding chemicals banned by health agencies outside the U.S., as well as full disclosure of product ingredients.

Another 111 participants, which it calls “innovator” firms, “made significant progress toward those goals.”

The Compact demonstrated that it is not only possible to make products that exceed current safety standards in the U.S., the Campaign says, but also that doing so can be part of a successful business model.

Consumer demand for cosmetics made without hazardous chemicals has made “natural and safe” cosmetics the fastest-growing segment of the $50 billion cosmetics industry, the Campaign asserts in a Nov. 30 release.

Another major accomplishment of the Compact, according to the Campaign, was the launch of The Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep cosmetics safety database. “The database currently attracts 1 million page views per month as consumers use it to shop for safer alternatives and companies use it to assess their ingredients and products,” the organization says.

Non-Participants Singled Out

The Campaign praised companies that joined the Compact, listing both Champion and Innovator firms in its report.

The organization also acknowledged that due to its outreach efforts, and in light of tightening European chemical regulations, many large multinational firms have agreed to remove at least some of the chemicals of concern identified by the EU from cosmetics sold in the U.S. and elsewhere around the world.

Early in the Compact’s existence, L'Oreal SA informed the Campaign that it was reformulating many of its products to meet the requirements of the EU Cosmetics Directive. Revlon similarly assured the organization that “no reformulations were necessary because all of the ingredients have been in compliance with the recently enacted EU regulations as well as all applicable FDA requirements.”

However, the Campaign says it is disappointed that neither company signed its Compact, “nor have they met all the criteria for safer ingredients or full transparency.”

The organization is most critical of some of the biggest multinational firms, specifically calling out The Estee Lauder Companies, [Coty Inc.] and Gap Inc. Coty, it noted, had stated that it would “globally reformulate but 'cannot assume third-party timelines and substitution plans.’”

The Campaign maintains that the U.S. should follow the EU's aggressive stance on chemicals. It points out that under the 2003 EU Cosmetics Directive, the government banned more than 1,000 known, suspected and probable carcinogens, mutagens and reproductive toxins from personal-care products, while the U.S. has banned only a handful to date.

“We'll keep advocating for the removal of harmful chemicals from personal-care products and educating the public about how to find safer alternatives until we shift the industry to safer, sustainable products,” the Campaign says.

Report Has “Little If Any Substance” – Council

The Personal Care Products Council released a statement in response to the report on Nov. 30.

In the statement, Kathleen Dezio, executive VP of public affairs and communications for the Council, says that “while we applaud meaningful efforts to promote greater safety of personal-care products and cosmetics, there is little if any substance to today's report.”

According to Dezio, the report is “based on numerous false assumptions,” including the notion that products sold in Europe are safer than those sold in the U.S. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” she says.

“There is little difference between the vast majority of personal-care products and cosmetics sold in the United States and those sold in Europe,” she says, adding that the “vast majority” of banned ingredients listed in the EU directive “have never been used in cosmetics in the U.S.” or “haven't been used in many years.”

She adds that the report overlooks the “aggressive, comprehensive” industry safety initiatives that have been implemented.

Dezio points to the Council’s Consumer Commitment Code, which was established in 2007 to highlight safety practices companies have followed for decades, while adding new measures “beyond existing law” to enhance transparency and ensure cosmetic product safety, the trade group says.

The exec woman also points to the growing number of companies participating in FDA's Voluntary Cosmetics Reporting Program. Since the Consumer Commitment Code was established, the number of formulations registered in the agency’s reporting program has increased by more than 200%, according to Dezio.

There is also the Safe Cosmetics Alliance, a coalition of beauty and personal-care stakeholders committed to enhancing product safety standards, she notes (Also see "New Industry Alliance Aims To Drum Up Public Support, Emphasizing Safety" - HBW Insight, 26 Sep, 2011.).

“As our industry continues to innovate and to enhance its safety practices, we are confident that it will continue to grow by providing consumers with a wide range of safe, quality products, something for which it is known throughout the world,” Dezio says.