| Main Feature Story - Friday, June 6, 2008
Going Green: Powder-puff girls
Teens for Safe Cosmetics are applying their exfoliating pads to the makeup industry...
by Joy Lanzendorfer
Just when you start to feel that you're getting a handle on all the environmental hazards around you, another one pops up like a toxic tube of lipstick.
In fact, a group of young women from Marin worries that hazard might actually be a toxic tube of lipstick. Those girls want everyone to be aware of the possible dangers of cosmetics, and they aren't stopping until teenagers nationwide join their cause.
Teens for Safe Cosmetics started in 2005 as a division of Search for the Cause, a nonprofit agency devoted to understanding Marin's high breast-cancer rates. As Teens for Safe Cosmetics approaches its third anniversary, it's showing no sign of slowing down—it now boasts hundreds of members, a fledgling branch in New York and its own product line to be distributed by Whole Foods this fall.
Behind it all is a warning: Every day, thousands of untested chemicals in the cosmetics and personal products we use are sinking into our bodies—and causing possible harm. While other countries have banned these chemicals, in the U.S. they are still in regular use. For many, this is unacceptable.
"When I learned what's going on and heard Safe Cosmetics' mission, I couldn't not get involved," says Carly Wertheim, 16, who attends Redwood High School in Larkspur. "When I heard of all the chemicals in the products and how they are related to cancer and birth defects, I was shocked and appalled. I couldn't believe it."
Her reaction was similar to that of Darya Watnick, 17, who joined Teens for Safe Cosmetics at the beginning of the 2007 school year. When she heard about it, Watnick says she too was shocked.
"I had no idea that there were all these toxic chemicals in cosmetics when they could be changed to less-toxic chemicals," she says. "And yet the companies were still putting them in the products. It is really scary."
Teens for Safe Cosmetics meets on a weekly basis and often holds educational summits to talk about these issues. In 2005, the girls were instrumental in passing the California Safe Cosmetics Act, requiring cosmetics manufacturers to label ingredients that can cause cancer or birth defects. Gov. Schwarzenegger later said that the teens' presentation convinced him not to veto the bill. In 2007, the girls held Project Prom. They put on prom dresses and combat boots and picketed in San Francisco to protest the cosmetics industry.
"It was one of the coolest things I have ever done on an activism level," says Wertheim. "It was just exhilarating walking around Union Square with signs and everything. It was fun. We got to riot a little bit."
Now, the group is launching its own product line called Teens Turning Green. The girls sampled skin-care products from sustainable companies and picked their favorites, which will be repackaged under a private label and sold at Whole Foods.
These are sophisticated accomplishments for any group, and especially for teenage girls. In fact, Judi Shils, who started Search for the Cause, also founded Teens for Safe Cosmetics. She founded the group because so many teenagers wanted to help with cancer research at the same time that her daughter was beginning to show an interest in makeup. So, while Teens for Safe Cosmetics may be for teenagers, women like Lisa Wertheim, Carly's mother, direct it.
"A lot of it is organized by us," she says. "They are in school and don't have time to do it. Much of the brainstorming comes from them, but the superficial organizing comes from us. You know, calling rentals, organizing the publicity of it, the tag lines for the advertising, the layouts of the ads, that kind of thing."
In the U.S., the FDA does not regulate cosmetics. As such, it has tested only 11 percent of the ingredients that go into the shampoo, makeup, deodorant, soap, sunscreen and the other two-dozen products the average person uses every day. Europe, Japan and Canada have banned more than 1,000 chemicals. The U.S., by comparison, has banned only nine.
Meanwhile, breast cancer rates have increased, especially in Marin, where they went up 60 percent between 1994 and 2002.
"It's very different here than in Europe," says Dr. Lynne Eldridge, author of Avoiding Cancer One Day at a Time, which she co-wrote with her brother David Borgeson, an environmental epidemiologist in San Anselmo. "It's innocent until proven guilty here. In Europe, it's guilty until proven innocent. We're not going to test 6-year-old girls with makeup and see if they get cancer, so it's part of a precautionary principle."
Experts like Eldridge are increasingly questioning the impact cosmetics have on people's health. It's estimated that one-in-three personal care products contains toxins or carcinogens that the skin absorbs into the body.
"It's kind of a gray science area," says Eldridge. "They haven't done enough studies on it. But it's like that freshman-year biology experiment. If you take a frog and throw it in boiling water, it jumps out. But if you put it in a little froggy tub and slowly turn up the water, it will boil to death. That could be what we're doing here with toxins in cosmetics."
Some of the problematic chemicals in cosmetics are carcinogens like coal tar, used in dandruff shampoo to dissolve the scalp; or mercury, found in eye drops and deodorants; or formaldehyde, which is used in nail products. Plasticizers like phthalates, which make nail polish less likely to chip and help perfume last longer, could cause birth defects. Parabens, a common preservative in all cosmetics, mimic estrogen in the body and could lead to breast cancer.
While banning chemicals would likely drive up the price of cosmetics, surprisingly, your average drugstore lipstick is not the worst offender here. The more costly products are, the more likely they contain dangerous ingredients, according to Eldridge.
"The more expensive body-care products frequently have higher levels of substances such as phthalates, which create a more aesthetically pleasing product but are potentially carcinogenic," she says. "It is counterintuitive. You would think it would be in cheaper products."
Not all doctors think people should panic about their cosmetics just yet. Ellen Marmur, chief of the Division of Dermatologic and Cosmetic Surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, believes people should do research on Web sites like www.cosmeticsdatabase.com —a site that lets you see whether harmful ingredients are in your products. People should also take into account how often they use a product.
"The risk comes from repeated applications of makeup, such as daily use for 10 years, and the trace accumulation that may occur leading to unforeseen results such as cancer," says Marmur. "However, most makeup is safe, as far as we know. Even some of the scarier ingredients, such as preservatives like parabens and formaldehyde, must be used in much higher concentrations to lead to carcinogenesis."
Critics of groups like Teens for Safe Cosmetics say they encourage consumerism and keep the teenagers' focus off the environment. But makeup was always meant to be a doorway into a greener lifestyle, believes Lisa Wertheim.
"It's not just about cosmetics, it's about inner beauty," she says. "And it's about the environment. I cannot emphasize that enough. What is harmful to your body is also harmful when it goes down the drain. So the cosmetics are more of an entry point to a larger scope."
And it seems to be making an impact. Watnick is already expanding to other environmental interests. This year, she took part in the Healthy Schools Initiative and helped test the levels of toxins in her school. The group just presented its findings to the Marin Country Board of Supervisors. Watnick says she plans to rejoin the group again next year.
When Carly Wertheim graduates high school, she says she is planning to continue her environmental work in college.
"The group is something that I'll always carry with me," she says. "I see me bringing it to whatever college I attend. I will just be broadening it to another level."
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