Big corporations now want to dictate to consumers – is this right??

When unfair laws and regulations favor big business over the small, creative ones, who is the ultimate loser? You – the customer. We’re speaking from both hearts and minds when we say,

“Don’t trust the so-called “Safe Cosmetics Act.” Look at what’s behind the mask!

Product safety should be the first concern of any manufacturer of cosmetics and Paul Penders spends hundreds of thousands of dollars to ensure our formulas are not only safe but good for you. Like other small, creative businesses we are constantly under threat from big corporations that want to put us out of business. Now they’ve got a clever strategy to eliminate their competition by using their political clout to influence US legislators to pass unfair and unnecessary laws.

Back in the news again, a bill is now before US Congress called the “Safe Cosmetics Act.” First proposed in 2010, it was authored by a group calling themselves the “Campaign for Safe Cosmetics,” in reality, this is a subsidiary of the political lobby EWG (the Environmental Working Group). When small businesses objected to the bill, it was tabled and then redrafted.

Here’s what’s going on in Congress today. This time the bill includes an amendment giving the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the right to recall products that they find unsafe. It also includes a proposal written by the “Personal Care Products Council” which is another trade group (again think “lobbyist” trying to influence politicians) claiming to represent the whole cosmetics industry. Who are their members? The Estee Lauder Companies, L’Oreal USA, and Procter & Gamble among other big corporations. They propose that all products be required to be tested and to meet certain standards which they have established (the “Cosmetic Safety Amendments Act of 2012,” H.R. 4395

In other words, they want the FDA to make it a law to follow the ingredient safety decisions made by the Council’s own Cosmetic Ingredient Review Panel. Who will their decisions favor? Big business, naturally. The FDA’s reaction? It seems they were as outraged as we were by the evident arrogance of this group. Testifying at the hearing on the bill was Michael Landa, Director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition at FDA who said, “Such a move would be “unprecedented” and possibly unconstitutional.” The FDA got it right this time!

In the same sentence, the proposers of the new bill acknowledge that the cosmetics industry is “currently one of the safest product categories regulated by the FDA.” Our reaction? The products are safe. It’s the “Safe Cosmetics Act” and groups like the EWA that jeopardize our safety and our freedoms. As the old proverb says,

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

By Teviot Fairservis with Paul Penders

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