Personal care products – everything from cosmetics to soaps to chemical hair straighteners and dyes – are largely unregulated. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not require specific tests to demonstrate the safety of individual cosmetic products or their ingredients before products go on store shelves. Far too many of these products can contain toxic ingredients that have been linked to cancer, infertility, miscarriage, poor infant and maternal health outcomes, obesity, asthma, and many other serious health concerns.

In addition, research shows that women of color are disproportionately exposed to these toxic ingredients. Last month, Toxic-Free Future and WE ACT released a report examining ingredient labels for over 500 hair products marketed for curly and coily hair sold at Sally Beauty. We found that 17% of those products contained chemicals that release formaldehyde and or siloxanes.

Multinational beauty brands have figured out how to sell the exact same drug store product at a similar price point to Europeans, while continuing to make a buck off of Americans using cheaper unsafe ingredients. We know big, multinational beauty brands offer the exact same products in Europe that are safer, effective, and still affordable when compared to the United States version. We know it is doable for these companies to make safer formulations, and what Americans really can’t afford is a colossal hospital bill from long-term use of an everyday toxic product. The reason products in the European Union are healthier is because they have banned nearly 2,500 chemicals from beauty and personal care products they have deemed too harmful to human health. The US FDA has only banned or restricted 11 ingredients. Though, we don’t even have to look as far as the EU to know industry can comply with stronger regulations of ingredients. Washington, California, Vermont, and Oregon have passed legislation banning the use of harmful ingredients in cosmetics and or personal care products already.  

A.2054B will stop companies from being allowed to sell personal care or cosmetic products, in New York State, that have intentionally added some of the most dangerous toxic chemicals from our products. These toxins include lead, mercury, formaldehyde, PFAS, parabens, and asbestos. The bill does not ban products, only ingredients.