The Precautionary Principle

Tis the season to be jolly—and buy European or organic cosmetics.

Our Food and Drug Administration allows cosmetics to be sold and consumed that are not tested for toxicity. In the FDA’s own words:

FDA’s legal authority over cosmetics is different from other products regulated by the agency, such as drugs, biologics, and medical devices. Cosmetic products and ingredients are not subject to FDA premarket approval authority, with the exception of color additives. However, FDA may pursue enforcement action against violative products, or against firms or individuals who violate the law.

Because cosmetic corporations don’t have to get FDA approval to sell their products, “89 percent of all ingredients in cosmetics have not been evaluated for safety by any publicly accountable institution,” says the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.

In 2007, the CSC reported that popular lipsticks contain lead. The FDA did its own study and “found lead in all 20 lipsticks it tested, at levels ranging from 0.09 parts per million (ppm) to 3.06 ppm – more than four times higher than the highest lead level of 0.65 reported in the 2007 CSC study.” The CSC’s own research pointed to “L’Oreal, Maybelline and Cover Girl” brands as being the most lead-filled.

Lead is a neurotoxin. Does it belong on your lips?

Why it is there—well, that has to do with our political culture. Cosmetic companies can put toxins into their products with impunity because a product is assumed to be safe until it is proven otherwise. If a person becomes poisoned by the product, it is their burden to prove they have been harmed.

In contrast to our “prove harm” culture, Europeans abide by the “precautionary principle.” The principle is this:

When an activity raises threats of harm to human health or the environment, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically.

Their laws and regulations are based on this principle, which is actually an ethic: a recognition of the limits of human powers and (based on that recognition) a self-imposed restraint on behavior. Europeans don’t allow cosmetic makers to put toxins into their products because they value long-term health over short-term profits, says Mark Schapiro, author of “Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What’s at Stake for American Power:

the European Union … has actually decided to ban a whole array of these substances, things that cause cancer, mutation of human genes, reproductive damage. So the reason I even know what kind of material is in cosmetics is not because the FDA has told us; it’s actually because the European Union has taken the action to remove that stuff, and they have a list.
AMY GOODMAN: What is the stuff?
MARK SCHAPIRO: The stuff is an array of ingredients that cause—that are determined to cause cancer, that are determined to cause reproductive damage, and that are determined to cause mutation of human genes. They’re called CMRs.
So the European Union actually looked at cosmetics, determined what kind of ingredients are being used, which of them cause—are potential contributors to—it’s important to remember that when I say “caused” because people need to understand how, like, chemicals work. It’s complicated. It’s not like you put lipstick on, and you’re going to get sick. That is not how it works. But we’re talking about an accumulation over life, over the course of your life, over years and years, multiple times repeated, very, very minute amounts over the course of many years. And that’s where the concern lies in many of these substances.

Thanks to an EU law called REACH, American cosmetic manufacturers who want to sell their products in Europe are being forced to account for the toxins in them. If their products are determined to be poisonous by EU standards they will not be sold in Europe.

But why wait for American companies to remove poisons from their beauty ointments. Abide by the precautionary principle—use European or organic cosmetics.

Related posts:

1. Precautionary Principle #2
2. economic “externalities” and ecocide
3. The most basic question
4. What time it is
5. Lincoln and the American Superorganism