Contact: Evita Almassi, ealmassi@nwhn.org

Washington, D.C. –  Led by the National Women’s Health Network, 42 national, state, and local organizations united by their shared interest in lifting up the voices of women sent a letter today to the House Energy and Commerce Committee applauding the committee for working on a bipartisan discussion draft  to address cosmetics safety and calling on them to include the strongest possible safeguards to protect women’s health.

While several of the organizations signing today’s letter have long been active in the fight for safe cosmetics, many others have not previously engaged on this issue. They represent a new and growing groundswell of grassroots activism in response to overwhelming evidence that the current system has failed women.

Under current federal law, manufacturers aren’t required to use safe ingredients, list their ingredients, test their products, use good manufacturing practices to prevent contamination, or even recall products they know are dangerous. As then-FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb stated in March, “To be clear, there are currently no legal requirements for any cosmetic manufacturer marketing products to American consumers to test their products for safety.”

While unsafe, unregulated products endanger everyone, they pose a unique risk to women. Toxic ingredients found in cosmetics and other personal care products such as baby powder, vaginal douches, lotion, body sprays and perfumes, makeup, and hair dyes and straighteners have been linked to ovarian cancer, breast cancer, early onset of puberty, fibroids and endometriosis, miscarriage, poor maternal and infant health outcomes, diabetes and obesity,  and more.

As noted in the letter, the safety and health risks are even higher for Black women, who often have to conform to Eurocentric beauty standards, particularly in the workplace. Many of the products marketed to Black women and girls are among the most toxic tested in independent analyses.