Teens For Safe Cosmetics

Did you know?

The average consumer uses between fifteen and twenty-five personal care and cosmetic products everyday. Those products may contain more than two hundred synthetic chemical compounds, which may cause harm with repeated exposure.

Untested

89% of the 10,500 chemical ingredients used in personal care products have never been tested for safety.

Unprotected

Unlike food or drugs, cosmetics are not monitored by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and require neither testing nor adequate labeling.

Toxic

One in three personal care products contain one or more ingredients classified as a possible human carcinogen or reproductive toxin. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health found that 884 chemicals used in personal care products and cosmetics are known to be toxic.

Chemicals banned in US vs. Europe

The European Union has banned over one thousand chemicals. The US has only banned nine.

Chemistry

An expanding body of evidence has linked pollutants and man-made chemicals in the environment and in consumer products to cancer, birth defects, and declining sperm counts among other health problems in a population.

Breast Cancer and Women

The incidence of breast cancer has increased alarmingly over the past sixty years:

• 1940 - one in twenty women
• 1994 - one in nine women
• 2004 - one in seven women

Damage to Men

Sperm count among men throughout the industrialized world has decreased by 50% over the last 50 years

Early onset of Puberty

Girls get their first periods today, on average, a few months earlier than did girls 40 years ago, but they get their breasts one to two years earlier. Over the course of a few decades, the childhoods of U.S. girls have been significantly shortened.