Teens Battle Carcinogens in Cosmetics
Posted by Kath Delaney, Founder and Chief Executive Officer on November 14, 2006
Today we feature Teens for Safe Cosmetics based in Marin County, California. While attending the Brower Youth Awards last month, I was moved by the young people being honored there for the environmental work they perform in their communities. For me, it was Earth Day 1970 and the “litter bug” campaign that shaped my early values on what it meant to be an environmentalist. One of the young people speaking that night was Jessica Assaf from San Rafael who helped found the teen-led campaign Teens for Safe Cosmetics.
These young women’s achievements are inspiring and impressive: they organized a statewide campaign that led Assaf and her other teens to lobby Senators and the Governor’s office to pass SB 484, a bill that requires cosmetic manufacturers to inform the Department of Health Services if their products contain carcinogens or other toxic substances. Teens for Safe Cosmetics and a coalition of other groups pressured OPI Products, Inc. the single largest nail polish company in the world to remove dibutyl phthalate (DBP), a toxin known to cause reproductive harm from its nail products. Oh—yes, dear sister friends, that nail polish you use on your yogi toes!
The teens are now launching The Acne Project, a research campaign to educate teenagers about what they are putting on their skin and what the healthier alternatives are. On February 2-4, 2007, they are hosting the 2nd Annual Teen Summit where they are inviting girls from across the country to gain the tools to launch similar efforts in their own hometowns. Stay tuned as we have Jessica Assaf joining the Goody Bag blog team to keep us informed on their campaign and upcoming events.
Thank you, Jessica and thank you, teens!
To learn about the potential harm of the products you use and to find safer alternatives, go to the Environmental Working Group’s “Skin Deep Report”:
http://www.ewg.org/reports/skindeep.
