WATCH: Surprising lack of oversight over cosmetics, shampoos, lotion


The following is a transcript of an investigative report on FullMeasure.news. Click on the link at the bottom of the transcript to watch the report.

We usually trust that the shampoo, deodorant, lotions and cosmetics we use are safe. You might be surprised to hear of a gap that has allowed potentially toxic and untested products stay on the shelf. Joce Sterman investigates.

America in the 1930s. Radio was the main form of entertainment. An average house cost $4,100. A gallon of gas was about 10 cents.

In that decade, President Franklin Roosevelt broke new ground by signing the federal Food Drug and Cosmetics Act. At the time, it would be used to combat questionable remedies like crazy water crystals, sleepy salts, and veneered chicken.

But when it passed in 1938, the law was missing one key piece. It did not give the Food and Drug Administration the authority to police the consumer products that line the shelves of your bathroom and vanity. To this day, the agency says it still can’t.

Melanie Benesh: We use multiple products, multiple times a day, so you’d think they would be among the most regulated, but that’s just not the case.

Melanie Benesh of the Environmental Working Group says there’s no category of consumer products that are less regulated than the soaps, lotions and makeup we use every day.

Joce: The FDA doesn’t have registries of these companies and their products?

Melanie Benesh: No.

Joce: They don’t have the authority to do recalls?

Melanie Benesh: No.

Joce: They don’t have a way to do a systematic look at their ingredients and what their long-term effects are?

Melanie Benesh: No.

Wynne Sisk: They’re supposed to be looking out for the health and safety of the American public. It’s not happening.

Hair stylist Wynne Sisk got out of the business after realizing a straightening treatment she was using on customers was making her sick.

Wynne Sisk: Our eyes were burning, our throats were burning.

Joce: No warnings on the box that it contains a harmful chemical?

Wynne Sisk: No.

Turns out, it contained fomaldehyde. The chemical, a noted irritant and possible carcinogen, is also found in many hair straighteners. Despite investigations and hundreds of complaints, it still hasn’t been banned by the FDA.

Visit The Sharyl Attkisson Store today

Shop Now

Unique gifts for independent thinkers

Proceeds benefit independent journalism

Wynne Sisk: How in the world could you turn a blind eye to something that is so important?

And there are other examples that show the Agency’s lack of power when it comes to personal care products.

After our Providence Station found asbestos in Claire’s makeup marketed to kids in 2017 – it took the FDA more than a year to confirm the hazard and issue a warning. Even then, it couldn’t force a recall.

And while Johnson and Johnson has long said its baby powder is asbestos free and safe to use, lawsuits have alleged a potential link between the product and ovarian cancer. In one case just last year, a cancer patient was awarded $300 million. Johnson and Johnson are still facing 16,00 additional cases.

Still the FDA has not issued or required a warning.

The Agency says it monitors the market for products that may pose a risk, and is asking manufacturers to start providing information about how they ensure their products are safe. It says it can work with the Department of Justice to get products off shelves, but it doesn’t happen often.

Washington has long wanted a change.

Bipartisan bills have repeatedly been introduced in both the House and Senate, with more recent versions designed to give the FDA the authority to do mandatory recalls, force companies to turn over information about health problems reported about their products, and get the agency to review chemicals of concern, five at a time, every year.

Sen. Susan Collins: We don’t know what these ingredients are.

Senator Susan Collins of Maine was among the sponsors of a bill proposed last year that lawmakers hoped would more heavily regulate personal care products.

Sen. Susan Collins: I’m always very hesitant to write new government regulations but this is an area that really cries out for regulation because consumers cannot possibly make informed judgments on the myriad of chemicals that are in personal care products.

Jay Ansell: The existing framework we use is in fact working. It is delivering safe products.

Jay Ansell is the Vice President of Science for the Personal Care Products Council, a trade association. He says the industry is not unregulated and says the vast majority of products are safe. Still, he says major industry players support modernizing the law.

Jay Ansell: Cosmetics are not been regulated the same as food and drugs but that hardly means they’re unregulated. I think the industry can be proud of what it’s done but people want to see some of these voluntary initiatives become mandatory. The FDA in the 21st century should have more tools.

Despite bipartisan support in many cases, the bills haven’t passed. The personal care industry opposes a lot of these bills and lobbies against them, because it would cost them money. In several of the bills introduced, the makers of products would pay fees to finance the FDA’s oversight.

Click on the link below to watch the report on FullMeasure.news:

https://fullmeasure.news/news/politics/personal-care-products


Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

7 thoughts on “WATCH: Surprising lack of oversight over cosmetics, shampoos, lotion”

  1. Oh no. don’t play into this. This is just one more example of the big industry players trying to shut off access to the cottage industry of Hand Made Cosmetics. There are thousands of Americans who have home manufacturing businesses making and selling not only soap, but also lotion, shampoo, perfume, and cosmetics from lip salve to mineral blush. The Hand Made Cosmetics industry is important to individuals – and answers a consumer need from people who want to know who is making the products they use, and that it is made right in our town or our state or our nation, and not in some factory in the 3rd world then fake-branded as “Artisanal” by luxury companies.

    Don’t allow Big Business’s latest “Political Marketing Campaign” to fool you. they want to do here the same thing they did to the cottage bakers 15 or 20 years ago when suddenly all the states said we couldn’t decorate birthday cakes or have bake sales. That campaign was sponsored by industries, including Big Grocery, who wanted to cash in on the thriving local in-home producers who had been making cute cakes and homemade bread since Mrs Baird.

    Under false pretenses, they DESTROYED livelihoods and the market and left us with no options but crap supermarket birthday cakes, which meant Walmart could rake in the business that once was produced by thousands of talented individuals from their homes in every hamlet in the nation. It has taken a decade of heavy lobbying to convince legislators to pass Cottage Food Laws allowing us to buy real homemade cakes and cookies from our neighbors again.

    1. Here is what I read:
      Joce: The FDA doesn’t have registries of these companies and their products?
      Melanie Benesh: No.
      Joce: They don’t have the authority to do recalls?
      Melanie Benesh: No.

      OK great..now lets look at the FDA site:
      https://www.fda.gov/cosmetics/cosmetics-compliance-enforcement/cosmetics-recalls-alerts

      The Consumer Product Safety Comm also is involved in Consumer products. and this report was on their site:

      CHRONIC HAZARD ADVISORY PANEL ON PHTHALATES AND PHTHALATE ALTERNATIVES
      July 2014
      U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
      ———-
      Sen. Susan Collins: We don’t know what these ingredients are. (WTH is she talking about? You can only use approved ingredients!)
      The regulation of consumer products involve several agencies,including the EPA
      https://edg.epa.gov/metadata/catalog/search/resource/details.page?uuid=%7B9F568352-8603-43EA-B588-EE3B61255AD7%7D:

      That was not you usual high quality report.

      1. Thanks for confirming this information, Jim! All of that is exactly right: every ingredient is regulated, inspected, and must only be used according to label.

        This marketing campaign is just another effort to put small businesses out of business through laws that protect only multi-national corporations who want to shut out the competition.

        1. A few of you seem a little bit misinformed! The FDA pages you link to, if you read them, prove the point of the story (contrary to your assertions). For example, FDA states: “FDA has no authority under the FD&C Act to order a recall of a cosmetic,” just as we reported.

  2. The fact that this is a professional Marketing Campaign designed to fool the public and lobby Congress into passing laws favorable to Big Beauty, is shown by the fact that I just saw an advertisment for it on a progressive women’s website (I’m not progressive but was taken there in an internet search):

    First the ad presented this question:
    “How much do you care about the ingredients in your beauty products?”

    When I answered “Not at all”, the ad showed me this message:
    “Sponsored Content
    “Join Beautycounter in telling Congress that it is time to update our cosmetic safety laws.
    “Contact Rep.____, Sen. ______ and Sen. _____ & then learn more about Beautycounter’s efforts.””

    So Sharyl, I think you’ve been had. :-(

Scroll to Top