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Cosmetics Not Pretty in Washington By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff

Politics isn't pretty in Washington, D.C., even for a cosmetics company.

Rhode Islander Ava Anderson met with Rep. Janice Schakowsky, D-Ill., in Washington to discuss the Safe Cosmetics Act. Ava Anderson, the teenage founder of the Warren-based personal care products company Ava Anderson Non-Toxic, was invited to testify at a hearing in March for the Safe Cosmetics Act. The bill requires increased disclosure of ingredients in everyday bath items such as shampoo and lotions. Currently, many of the chemicals, including suspected carcinogens, are kept off labels through a loophole that classifies many toxins as "trade secrets."

Like most bills in Congress lately, the legislation has sat in committee for months. The March 27 hearing had five lobbyists speaking against the bill and only a physician speaking in favor of it. The cosmetics trade industry also has its own bill that would prevent disclosure of ingredients.

Although she was bumped from the testimony list, Anderson stayed in Washington for two days to meet with nine representatives, or staff members, of the subcommittee that held the hearing.

To convince politicians of the merits of the legislation, Anderson employed the same approach used to market her products to customers: face-to-face meetings.

"We thought we would be talking about legislation and what we were really doing was educating people," said Kim Anderson, Ava's mother and company president.

Ava and Kim presented some of the basic health concerns related to cosmetics, such as the masking of hundreds of harmful chemicals under terms such as "fragrance." Fragrance typically contains pthalates, which are linked to cancer and developmental disorders, and are easily absorbed into the bloodstream. Unlike in Europe, where most of these harmful chemicals are banned, thousands of untested ingredients are used in popular U.S. skin and bath products.

It's easy and inexpensive for a competitor to determine the "secret" ingredients in any product, but not for consumers, Kim Anderson said. "The only people they are keeping this from is the American public," she said.

After meeting with the bill's sponsor, Rep. Janice Schakowsky, D-Ill., Kim and Ava provided the research for specific cleansers and cosmetics in brands used by the politicians. The "body burden" chart showed the toxins absorbed from the 14 everyday grooming products used on average in the United States daily.

The politicos and their staffers were surprised by the toxins going into their bodies. It's this information Ava Anderson, a high-school senior, is using to build her business. Instead of the activist movement, Anderson is pursuing a capitalist approach to bring about change.

Give consumers a little knowledge about what's in their laundry detergent and shaving cream, she said, and it will eventually change the marketplace.

But she still urges reaching out to legislators.

"Anybody who wants to make a difference should at the very least pick up the phone and say it's time to take harmful chemicals out of personal care products," she said/

Rep. James Langevin, D-R.I. has yet to review the legislation. Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., did not respond to an e-mail asking if he supports the bill.

Monday, May 7, 2012 at 1:59PM Share Article | Link to this article |  1 Comment

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READER COMMENTS (1) The potential for chemical reform is quite exciting, but it should be done in a way that doesn’t take the lives of millions of animals (for toxicity testing) in the name of better protection for human health and the environment - and to bring the latest lipstick shade to the market. Legislative language should be explicit and ban animal testing for cosmetics and cosmetics ingredients. We need to ensure that chemical testing is in line with the 21st century and relies on modern, human cell and computer-based methods that provide accurate data on how a chemical acts and what the impact on human health may be.