Thanks to pressure from health-minded consumer groups like the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, Johnson & Johnson has announced it will remove two chemicals from its personal care products, including its famous “no more tears” baby shampoo: 1,4-dioxane, considered a likely carcinogen, and quaternium-15, a chemical that releases the preservative formaldehyde. Ironically, 1,4 dioxane is a byproduct produced by chemical agents used to make soaps less harsh.
The Campaign recently launched a boycott of Johnson & Johnson after learning the company had removed the chemicals from the products in several countries abroad, proving that they were not essential to the formulas. Campaign founder and personal care activist Stacy Malkan, featured in our December 2011 “Change Agents” article, called the company’s decision “an important step.”
“We think it’s an important step forward. We look forward to the day when all their products are free of carcinogens and other chemicals of concern,” spokeswoman Malkan told the Associated Press. The full story is here: http://tinyurl.com/7qu4r2x
Read “Beauty Makeover” in the upcoming January-February issue of Experience Life for more on how some personal care companies are making healthy changes. For more about cosmetic safety in general, read “Beauty Beware” in our December 2009 archives.
