This article appeared in the July 25, 2008 Jewish Advocate.

Stacy Malkan’s 2007 book “Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry” bares some frightful facts about our daily routines. “I was a teenage make-up diva,” says Malkan, who is Communications Director of Health Care Without Harm, a global coalition of 473 organizations that seeks to reduce pollution in the health care sector. “I discovered that I had been exposing myself to 200 chemicals a day, many of them toxic - before even getting on the school bus!” Today, Malkan strives for safer products and, as media strategist for the national consumer protection agency Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, helps advance non-toxic personal care for all.

A 2002 Environmental Working Group report, “Not Too Pretty: Phthalates, Beauty Products & the FDA,” found phthalates, industrial chemicals used as plastic softeners or solvents in various consumer items, in over 70 percent of the personal care products they tested. Banned in toys in California, phthalates can damage the liver, kidneys, lungs and reproductive system, according to make-upusa.com.

Consumers can absorb phthalates through the skin, as fumes, in contaminated food; babies can get them through their toys, and patients through medical devices.

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics recommends avoiding products with "fragrance" on the label and using those only scented with essential oils, because companies are not required to list any of the chemicals used in a fragrance mixture on the product label - who would have known? How can this be? Turns out that the U.S. cosmetics industry is both powerful, and unregulated. In Europe, over 1100 chemicals have been banned, but here, just 10. Only 11 percent of cosmetic additives are even assessed.

Thus, shoppers must guess, even in healthier aisles. “I buy some items from Trader Joe's such as shampoo, hoping that their "natural" claims are true,” says Tolle Graham, Healthy Schools Coordinator for the Dorchester-based Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health. “I hope, because it's important to me that people can afford the natural products.”

But at least one tool is available. “Find out how safe your cosmetics and personal care products are for the environment, and if need be, switch products,” says Rabbi Katy Z. Allen, Staff Chaplain at Brigham and Women's Hospital and facilitator of the MetroWest nature-oriented study group Ma'yan Tikvah – A Wellspring of Hope. She suggests visiting the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database at cosmeticdatabase.com, where you can simply type in the name of your product. You may need to prepare for a shock.

Too often, the effects are insidious. Janice Homer, a registered nurse and member of the Massachusetts Nurses Association’s health and safety committee, developed allergies, sinus problems, and asthma from exposure to on-the-job perfumed cleaning products. She uses Pharmaceutical Specialties, Inc. Free and Clear hair and skin products, which were recommended by Dr. Madeline Krauss, a dermatologist in Wellesley Hills. They are free of dyes, fragrances, parabens, lanolin, and formaldehyde, which are, unfortunately, common chemical irritants. “I use these because my skin reacts to products with fragrance,” she said. “I also cannot wear any clothing with fragrance because of my asthma, and my face and eyes will also swell.” Homer has spoken at conferences on cleaning chemicals and fragrance as a cause of increased asthma rates in healthcare workers.

Aliza Wasserstein, who is working with Clean Water Action this summer to help pass the state’s Safer Alternatives Act, recently organized a Healthy Products Party at the Moishe Kavod Social Justice House in Brookline. She said that while there are an increasing number of healthier alternative cosmetics, information is not always accessible. “Where I may have the education and time to research products, there are always going to be more unregulated products with unknown toxic risks,” she said. “Ordinary citizens should not be saddled with the burden of making scientific decisions with each purchase.” Measures such as the Safer Alternatives Bill, which passed the Senate and can become law if the House passes it before it adjourns on July 31, would work with businesses to put safer products in the hands of Massachusetts consumers.

“It’s only a matter of time before we see a major shift in the beauty industry away from toxic chemicals,” predicts Malkan. “Companies already know how to make safer products, and that’s what consumers want.” She says consumers can follow new laws that regulate the beauty industry if they sign up for the action list at safecosmetics.org.

“Together,” she says, “we can create a vibrant new green economy that is healthy for people and the planet.”