ARE
“ORGANIC” PRODUCTS REALLY ORGANIC?
As more and more skincare and bodycare companies compete
for your dollars, we are seeing the terms natural and organic
used more and more frequently. When we look at the term organic,
we usually think it means “grown and cultivated without
the use of chemicals”. That is what the cosmetic companies
would like us to think.
There is no authority who governs the use of
natural or organic on labels!
Consumer Report’s magazine, ShopSmart states:
“you need to watch out for fake organic body care products.
One big problem is there is no enforcement of federal regulations
to prevent companies from labeling these products organic,
even when they’re loaded with synthetic ingredients”.
According to Skin Deep, an industry watchdog and
a project of the Environmental Working Group, (EWG),
“less than 1% of organic products are made from ingredients
that have all been screened for safety by any industry safety
panel…that leaves more than 99% of all products
with one or more ingredients which have never been publicly
assessed for safety, raising questions and concerns for consumers
who need to know their products are safe”.
EWG research also shows that 22% of all cosmetic products
may be contaminated with cancer-causing impurities. http://www.ewg.org/node/21286
So what’s a consumer to do?
1. Read the label. To
determine how safe the ingredients used in your current brand
of skin care products are, you can look up the ingredients
in our toxic ingredient directory: http://nishta.mionegroup.com/toxic.
This information is sourced from Material Safety Data Sheets
(MSDS), which is recognized as the international standard
for providing safety information about chemical ingredients
used by humans.
2. There is a way to have certainty that the
products you are using do not contain chemicals that could
be harmful to you and/or your children. To know a product
is really organic: Look for the seal that says the
product is Certified Organic which means the product is 95%
or more organic.
What’s Certified Organic?
Certified Organic products are not just chemical free by
testing. They are grown and processed without the use of synthetic
chemicals, fertilizers, or genetically modified organisms
(GMO’s). It is an innovative method of farming and production;
it is about the way the product ingredients have been grown,
prepared, processed and packaged; the whole system is linked.
Certified Organic also means there is an independent third-party
guarantee of an “organic” claim. Certified organic
products must comply with stringent international standards
that cover all aspects of the processing chain.
But it says it’s Organic!
Organic may or may not be what you think.
Most of us think that organic means something is grown, cultivated
and processed without the use of synthetic chemicals such
as insecticides, herbicides and fumigants.
But the bodycare industry definition of organic is any compound
containing carbon, a chemistry definition. Carbon is found
in anything that ever lived. SO, by using this definition
of organic we could say that the toxic petrochemical preservative
methyl paraben is “organic” since it was formed
by leaves that rotted over thousands of years to become the
crude oil used to make this toxic preservative. Read the label
and check out the ingredients in our toxic ingredient directory
http://nishta.mionegroup.com/toxic.
So what about Natural?
It usually doesn’t mean what you think.
Most of us think that if something is natural, it
is “existing in, or formed by nature; not artificial”.
In terms of industry definition the skin care/cosmetic industry
uses the word “natural” to mean any ingredient
“derived from” a natural substance.
We often see long chemical names followed by a phrase such
as “derived from coconut oil”. For example, to
create cocoamide DEA from coconut oil requires the use of
carcinogenic synthetic chemical diethenaolamine (DEA) in the
refining process. It is therefore no longer natural and, to
insinuate it is a natural substance by adding the phrase “from
coconut oil” is, at best, misleading.
How does the body care/cosmetic industry “get
away with” adding toxic ingredients to our products?
The cosmetics and personal care industry is first and foremost
a business. It is driven by the principle of maximizing economic
gain. History confirms that profit driven interests are likely
to take precedence over safety and health considerations.
Increasing numbers of companies are now claiming to use “organic”
herbs in their products and they may be….maybe one or
two of the ingredients are truly organic, but what about the
rest of the ingredients? Are they safe?
Quoting the Organic Consumers Association: “One
leading body care manufacturer has been mislabeling their
shampoo and other products as "70% Organic" by counting
regular water as an "organic" ingredient. But in
a positive response to a nationwide consumer marketplace pressure
campaign it has stopped labeling its products as "70%
Organic," and instead will now be using certified
organic essential oils to fragrance their products”
(so they can now use the word certified organic on their label)!
Another organization, The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, hosted
a Hollywood gathering of 125 makeup artists who have worked
with actors including Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Love Hewitt
and Sharon Stone. They shared how many of them had experienced
bladder cancer, breast cancer and respiratory illnesses—three
conditions linked to chemical and/or cosmetic industry exposures.
How do we know what we are buying is really “natural”
and organic”?
Fortunately, there is a very simple way to differentiate
between hype and truth in these products—and that is
to read the ingredient list on the label! Legally, all skin
care products must be labeled in descending order of quantity
of ingredients included. A good rule of thumb is to divide
the ingredients into thirds: the top third usually contains
90-95% of the product, the middle usually contains 5-8% and
the bottom third, 1-3%.
Why is it important to pay attention to ingredient
labels?
• To avoid toxins disguised as “natural”
ingredients
• To never be fooled again by slick marketing hype
• To effectively create change through own informed
purchasing power.
Organic Certification Organizations:
USDA US Department of Agriculture
ACO Australian Certified Organic
BFA Biological Farmers of Australia
JAS (Japan) and
IFOAM (Europe)
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