Education, research and consumer pressure are needed to encourage cosmetics companies to take a precautionary approach and remove potentially harmful ingredients from products. So concluded the first seminar to bring together industry, retailers and customers to discuss chemicals in cosmetics, this week.

Letting the Genie out of the Bottle, organised by Women’s Environmental Network, brought together green and mainstream cosmetics and toiletries companies, high street and specialist retailers, environmental groups and consumers to explore what companies are doing already to reduce the use of potentially harmful chemicals and what more they can do.

WEN’s Health Co-ordinator, Helen Lynn outlined concerns about the cocktail of potentially harmful chemicals women, men and children are exposed to from their daily routine. Evidence shows some common ingredients can disrupt hormones, are linked to cancer and fertility or reproductive damage and increase the risk of allergies.

“We and others are very worried about the lack of any data on the long-term, low dosage exposure to these ingredients, the combined and cumulative effects of daily use of a mixture of products, and the increasing use and marketing of cosmetics to children and for use on babies,” she said. “Ingredients are ending up in places they were never designed to be: in fatty tissue, breast milk*, polar bears and waterways for instance. The true costs are not reflected in the price; if consumers knew the environmental and health price they might have to pay, would they consider it worth it?”

Some companies, such as Green People, Essentially Yours, Living Nature and others listed on WEN’s micro-website (www.wen.org.uk/cosmetics), are already producing skin care and toiletries without such ingredients. What, the seminar asked, would help others follow suit?

Smaller producers called for more scientific research data from their raw ingredients suppliers, existing research to be more widely accessible (plenty of evidence already exists to justify precautionary action) and government funding for new research, so both they and their customers could make informed choices. Many smaller producers used parabens³ as ‘easy’ preservatives because they came ready mixed and suppliers assured them they were deemed safe under current regulations. One producer pledged to stop using them. And WEN challenges other companies remove parabens so they can be considered for inclusion on WEN’s list.
Retailers said customer pressure was key. Ian Ferguson, of the Co-operative Retail Group, said customer concern was behind their decision to phase selected chemicals out of their own brand cleaning and toiletry products.

But Jeremy Burnie, Safeway’s Technical Controller, said the harsh economic truth was that if the customer demand wasn’t there, companies couldn’t afford to change. Elaine Spiby of Marks & Spencer, who introduced an organic skincare range last year, said: “Less than one percent of customer contacts are about environmental issues. We are changing but the customer isn’t aware.”

Yet demand is growing. Natural and organic supermarket chain, Fresh & Wild, started in the mid 90s and now has six stores across London and has just opened another in Bristol. Jeff Martin, their natural remedies co-ordinator said: “We like to think we’ve done our homework for our customers so they don’t have to read lots of labels and can enjoy their shopping.” They have a list of ingredients that their stock must not contain. And he predicted that within two years “we’ll see plant-based skin care in all large supermarkets.”

Many participants welcomed the European Union’s plans to reform chemicals legislation through a framework called REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals) but acknowledged that the plans had already been significantly weakened and delayed in response to pressure from the chemicals industry.

Stephen Johnson, Sustainable Development Manager for Chemicals at Boot’s said up to 20% of their raw ingredients could be affected by the controls but added: “We really back REACH as retailers. If you have a strong legislative framework, these issues wouldn’t exist. We can’t take the risk of our brands being classed as containing hazardous ingredients because it’s just not good sales practice.”

Finally, the seminar agreed, education for school children and young consumers was key to change consumer habits. Subject to funding, WEN plans to develop new work in this area in 2005.

* Breast-feeding is still the healthiest option, despite the contamination of breast milk with toxic chemicals. Breast milk contains anti-bodies and nutrients for healthy development that are not found in formula milk. Formula milk is also likely to be contaminated with risky chemicals.

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Media contact: Liz Sutton, Press Officer 020 7481 9004.
Fax: 020 7481 9144 or email info@wen.org.uk.