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Dear Green American,

Working for safer, toxin-free, personal care products is an important green issue. If toxins that exist in small amounts in the products we use every day can trigger health problems from asthma to cancer, imagine what happens to the workers exposed to these toxins in much higher doses?

The same goes for environmental impact. Years ago, Horst Rechelbacher, founder of Aveda captured my imagination with his simple thought exercise: If all the products we use for caring for our hair and skin were made from organically grown plants, there would be a whole beautiful world of thriving green plants all around us.

Many great, green companies in our Green Pages pursue this mission. In this newsletter issue, online editor Andrew Korfhage interviews Mary Kearns of Herban Lifestyles , a member of our Green Business Network™, and finds out more about her safe, natural, green, and organic soaps, lotions, and body care products that are literally safe enough to eat.

And our senior editor Tracy Fernandez Rysavy, brings us the other side of the story from her article "Is It Poison?" in our April/May Green American magazine.

Tracy exposes how a mere 200 of the roughly 85,000 chemicals used in the US have been tested by the EPA since the Toxic Substances Control Act was passed in 1976. Worse, no tests at all have been done to look at the damage caused when more than one chemical is present. And since the average American is exposed to 126 chemicals in their personal care products each day, chemical interactions can multiply the impact on your health.

We call out the 9 worst toxins to avoid in your personal care products (and we've got a downloadable poster of them on our Web site).

Finally, Green America's policy director, Fran Teplitz, informs me of an important new piece of legislation just introduced in the US House of Representatives. The Safe Cosmetics Act of 2011 would strengthen the authority of the FDA to block the use of unsafe chemicals in our cosmetics and personal care products. Please learn more about this legislation below and take action with our allies at the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics today.

P.S. Help support our policy work – working on issues from safe cosmetics to climate change to consumer financial protection – and help us keep producing issues of the Green American, like our "Poisonous Personal Care" issue. Upcoming issues will tackle how to eliminate plastics and sweatshop-produced products from our lives. Thanks for all you do.

Support the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2011

On Friday, June 24, House Representatives Jan Schakowsky (D, IL), Edward Markey (D, MA), and Tammy Baldwin (D, WI), introduced the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2011, an attempt to overhaul the outdated federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which has not been updated in 70 years.

Under the new Act, the US Food and Drug Administration would be given the authority to:

• Require safety assessment of all cosmetic ingredients using a health-based standard that includes protections for children, the elderly, workers, and other vulnerable populations.
• Phase out of cosmetics ingredients linked to cancer, birth defects, and reproductive or developmental harm.
• Require registration of cosmetic manufacturing, packaging, and distributing facilities. (Business with annual revenue under $2 million would be exempt.)
• Close labeling loopholes by requiring full ingredient disclosure on product labels.
• Give the FDA product recall authority

Any one of these advances alone would represent real progress; together they represent a huge step forward for safer personal care products. Learn more about the legislation and find an easy form for contacting your representative via our allies at the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.

Learn more and contact your rep »

Meet Mary Kearns of Herban Lifestyle

Find safer body care products from the members of our Green Business Network™, like Mary Kearns, owner of Herban Lifestyle in Falls Church, Virginia. Mary runs a small business that creates organic and fairly traded personal care products, all made by hand in the DC-area by Mary, her friends, and her family.

"Because I care about the health of people and the planet, my products never contain artificial preservatives, synthetics, artificial fragrances, artificial colors, petroleum-based ingredients, GMOs or any other ingredients that are suspected of being harmful," says Mary. "I source my ingredients from suppliers who ensure that their workers, and all those involved in the production of those ingredients, are treated fairly and humanely."

One of Mary's most popular products are her "fuzzy soaps," soap bars made from organic oils that are then wrapped in organic wool (dyed by crafters in the northeast US), which creates a built-in washcloth. Other products include lotions, shaving soap, make-up remover, lip balm, and more. Read our interview with Mary to find out what green products she uses in her own life, and what's inspiring her from the green economy now.

Meet Mary Kearns »

9 Toxins to Avoid in Personal Care Products

Do you know what "fragrance" means when you see it on the label of a personal care product? Neither do we! That's because all sorts of chemicals used to scent products can be clumped under the vague term "fragrance" – and they don't have to be disclosed. Found in everything from shampoo to deodorant, a single product's secret fragrance mixture can contain potentially hundreds of toxic volatile organic compounds.

The Safe Cosmetics Act of 2011 (above) would require companies to separate out the components of the "fragrance" used in their product, but for now, this obfuscating term sits on our list as the "number two" ingredient to avoid in personal care products.

Click through to Tracy Fernandez Rysavy's article "Is it Poison?" to read our list of the top nine ingredients to avoid, and to find a downloadable PDF you can print out to keep at home. Send this list to others who need to know about the known carcinogens, hormone disruptors, and neurotoxins that continue to be included in products sold on store shelves in the United States.

9 Toxins to Avoid »

More from this issue of the Green American »