Well...we are! And we certainly do! Nothing has changed in that regard. What HAS changed is the radical and illogical direction that the Environmental Working Group and the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has taken lately. First it was their Colorado Safe Personal Care Act that was swiftly defeated after the real facts were presented (thankfully). Now it's their new proposed "Safe" Cosmetics Act of 2010. Don't be fooled, OK?... it sounds good, but this bill won't make your cosmetics one bit safer. That's the catch.
While I happen to agree with the CFSC & the EWG that many mainstream cosmetics may not be particularly safe (there's so much we don't know), this bill is nothing more than a grand example of excessive government regulation gone ape WILD. It will effectively kill thousands of small responsible independent companies all across America (like ours) who are already making safe products because they won't have the resources to comply with its ridiculous & tedious demands. Here's a fantastic blog post that exposes some of the untruths that are circling about, and here's one of the best explanations I've seen from a consumer standpoint of why all cosmetic users should oppose this bill. (Hey, if you use deodorant, toothpaste, or a moisturizer, you're using cosmetics.)
As Libertarians and staunch defenders of freedom and personal responsibility, we oppose ALL forms of unnecessary, burdensome big government regulations that drive up costs and stifle small businesses, but especially the so-called "Safe" Cosmetics Act of 2010. Every micro manufacturer of safe cosmetics I know also opposes this bill. Won't you join us? Sign the petition here and ask your friends and neighbors to sign it too..
7 comments:
The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics strongly supports small businesses and we have always been major advocates for elevating the work and values of the independent businesses that are the driving force of innovation toward health and safety in the personal care products industry. Preserving opportunities for small businesses to succeed, while also making sure that U.S. products meet a high bar of safety, is critical for the continued success of the personal care industry, as well as for the U.S. economy as a whole. We are fully committed to working together with companies in our Compact for Safe Cosmetics community and others to ensure that the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 does not unfairly burden small businesses that are already committed to making the safest products possible.
There is a lot of misinformation circulating about the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 that it will "kill small businesses." This couldn’t be further from the truth and is an unfortunate misrepresentation of the facts. The Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 contains specific provisions to protect and help small businesses, including:
Fee exemptions for small businesses with less than $1 million in annual sales.
Data sharing and transparency: small businesses will benefit by having access to safety assessments conducted by other cosmetics companies and suppliers that are currently kept private, and it will open up the information flow so all companies have easier access to the information that will help them make the best decisions about product safety.
"Producer right-to-know" provisions that will enable cosmetics companies to get full information from suppliers about toxicological data and safety information for cosmetic ingredients, including the chemicals in fragrance and preservatives.
Small companies will be required to meet the provisions of the bill, such as disclosure of fragrance ingredients (which many Compact signers are already doing) and safety substantiation of product ingredients (which is a requirement of current FDA law but not enforced). We believe these challenges can be met without harm to small businesses and we believe the benefits of the Safe Cosmetics Act to small businesses will far outweigh the challenges.
In the big picture, the Safe Cosmetics Act will benefit small businesses by leveling the playing field and increasing consumer awareness about their choices at the store. In the current marketplace, where ingredients are kept secret and toxicity data is inaccessible, consumers are confused and do not have easy access to the information they need to make informed choices. The data and product transparency provisions of the Act will help clear up confusion and give consumers the tools to more easily choose the best and safest products.
The Act will also lift the cosmetics industry as a whole. While many large companies do not want to change, it is not helpful to the cosmetics industry to be using decades-old formulations with known toxicity problems, and ignoring the new science that makes it clear that low-dose toxic chemical exposures are a health hazard. The Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 will bring the American cosmetics industry to the forefront of global competitiveness by moving the industry as a whole away from the polluting chemistry of the past, and spurring the innovation of green chemistry and the development of the next generation of safer products that the world market is demanding – increasing consumer confidence in U.S.-made products and ensuring that we all have access to safe personal care products.
We appreciate hearing the concerns of small businesses and want to work with businesses to make sure their concerns are addressed. For more information about how the legislation will impact small businesses, visit: http://www.safecosmetics.org/article.php?id=695
Thank you,
Campaign for Safe Cosmetics
The fact that you believe "the benefits of the Safe Cosmetics Act to small businesses will far outweigh the challenges" is a golden testament to your complete lack of understanding of how this burdensome bill will impact small businesses such as mine. Take off the rose colored glasses Jamie! Thousands of small responsible cosmetic companies, the ones that ARE innovating and the ones that ARE making safe cosmetics, are outraged by this bill, and rightfully so.
Sigh. I don't even know where to begin. The shortest possible version is I am very worried. I understand how difficult it must be to compose legislation that works for both large and small companies, but I am afraid we may well be a casualty if this passes... and we have been working for the safest, most environmentally and personally safe products possible.
Jamie, exempting businesses with under a million dollars in sales is a carve-out for hobbyists, not for small businesses. Our small business of *four* people would be subjected to this unnecessary federal regulation. A requirement of a certain amount of money, time, or resource applied to a company with a million dollars in sales is 1000 times more burdensome than the same requirement for a company with a billion dollars in sales.
Consumers are not babies. They can go online, research ingredients, call their suppliers or ask questions in person or by e-mail, and make decisions about their body care products as responsible adults must do every day about every aspect of life.
The federal government does not need to extend its reach to a family business thousands of miles away making soap bars out of local natural ingredients, imposing tens of thousands of dollars of fees, and requiring the maker to hire yet another professional consultant to comply with burdensome federal paperwork - this time to file a research report on the effects of bluebonnet seeds on the skin before a bar of all natural hand made soap can be sold at the farmer's market.
Salah Boukadoum
Founder, Soap Hope
Jamie,
Thank you for coming on to the blog to share your thoughts and feedback.
Things that are not good for small business in this bill are things like trace element reporting, the cumbersome data reporting (why does the FDA care when I hire an employee? I already tell a variety of gov't entities when I hire people. Please don't add to my paperwork), and the call for a ban on trace ingredients considered carcinogenic when ingested.
A lot of natural products would be included in this 'ban' because many natural products are composed of 70 - 245 trace elements (70 in lavender, 245 in Rosemary).
Though I disagree that this is the right legislation (I'm more in favor of the proposed FDAG09 act) I would welcome the chance to fly to meet you and your team so we could red mark the bill together and find common ground.
Feel free to call me anytime 360.734.8278 x101 to talk about some of the wording and language of the bill that is not favorable to small business.
Jamie-
I also own a small natural skin care business that I created to make safe products for my own children. I feel completely betrayed by EWG & CFSC with this legislation. CFSC keeps repeating the same talking points, but have yet to address the real concern in Subchapter B, Sec. 611, (E) which requires testing and listing on the product label contaminants present at levels above technically feasible detection limits. These tests cost $5000 each. Can you please explain how this would be economically feasible for any but the largest cosmetic companies to comply?
Finding common ground would be awesome Anne Marie, because in the end, I think we all want the same thing....safe products!
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