Stacy Malkan, “Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry”

From this website:

…The book reveals the toxic truth about everyday personal care products, and offers an insider’s view of the campaign to get the cosmetics industry to use safer ingredients.

Shockingly, toxic chemicals are also widely used in children’s products like toys, plastic baby bottles, and baby lotions and washes.  You will learn about the widespread use of toxic chemicals in children’s products, why our laws are not protecting us, and the impacts these chemicals may be having on our kids.   …

Malkan was interviewed about the book by Hearther Gehlert; below is an excerpt from the transcript:

Heather Gehlert: There are so many environmental issues you could’ve written a book about. Why cosmetics?

Stacy Malkan: I think cosmetics is something that we’re all intimately connected to. They’re products that we use every day, and so I think it’s a good first place to start asking questions. What kinds of products are we bringing into our homes? What kinds of companies are we giving our money to?

It has something pretty interesting in common with global warming too.

It does. I think of it as global poisoning. I think that the ubiquitous contamination of the human species with toxic chemicals is a symptom of the same problem (as global warming), which is an economy that’s based on outdated technologies of petrochemicals — petroleum. So many of the products we’re applying to our faces and putting in our hair come from oil. They’re byproducts of oil.

Many cosmetic products on the market right now claim they are pure, gentle, clean and healthy. But, as you reveal in this book, they’re far from it. Toxic chemicals in these products are showing up in people. What were some of the most surprising toxins you discovered in cosmetics?

Lead in lipstick was pretty surprising. We (the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics) just released that report last week. Many personal care products have phthalates, which is a plasticizer and hormone disruptor. That’s why we started the cosmetics campaign — because we know that women have higher levels of phthalates in their bodies, and we thought that cosmetics might be a reason. But, I think overall, the most surprising thing was to know that there’s so much that we don’t know about these products. Many, many chemicals are hiding in fragrance. Companies aren’t required to list the components of fragrance. Products also are contaminated with carcinogens like 1,4 dioxane and neurotoxins like lead that aren’t listed on the label. So it’s difficult for consumers to know what we’re using.

–Ann Bartow