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Product
/ Ingredient Comparison
Over 99% of mass marketed personal care products can be characterized
as bottles of cheap chemicals. Unfortunately there are too many
of them to list. However, we found a web site that lists ingredients
of 7500 personal care products.
The following links are to an independent, non-profit consumer
advocacy organization called
Environmental Working Group.
One of their public services is to assess
the safety of personal care product ingredients by classifying
and quantifying the health risks to consumers. North Shore
Essentials,
Inc. applauds this effort of Environmental Working Group to
document personal care products and inform the public of
their findings.
You will not find our products in their database because we
are an exclusive, high quality, alternative brand, not mass market.
Nor will you find most of our ingredients detailed on their web
site because, not only are our ingredients safe and effective,
but also so expensive that they are not commonly used in mass
market products. However, you can find a few of our ingredients
such as Avocado, Jojoba and Wheat
Germ oils listed as safe.
Educating consumers is an expensive and time consuming task.
In the long term, consumer awareness will lead to changes in
personal care product buying habits. Banning ingredients that
are dangerous and requiring warning labels is already being done
by the FDA. Even though we disagree with the regulatory agenda
of Environmental Working Group, their educational information
is an excellent resource for personal care product consumers.
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Their
Product Ingredients
by Environmental Working Group |
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Side Effects of Regulation
How to increase prices, reduce competition and eliminate
choices
One of Environmental Working Group's goals is to impose more
regulations on the cosmetics industry through the US
Food and Drug Administration. Specifically, they seem to
want the FDA to pre-approve cosmetics before they are marketed,
just like prescription drugs and medical devices. The FDA already
bans personal care product ingredients that are dangerous and
requires warning labels in certain circumstances. We strongly
disagree with new product pre-approval by government.
New product pre-approval would:
- cause US cosmetic product prices to skyrocket,
and
- stifle new, alternative
personal
care products and companies, and
- allow foreign companies
to sell cosmetics via the Internet undermining the US cosmetics
industry
An Analogy or Glimpse of the Future
Hopefully we can learn from the heavily FDA regulated prescription
drug industry. If consumers knew the extent of the FDA required
documentation, validation, verification, procedures, rules, inspections,
approvals, and reviews imposed on the drug producers, they would
understand a few things about the prescription drug industry.
- Why prescription drugs cost so much in the US.
- Why new drugs take an average of 15 years to reach the marketplace.
- How regulatory barriers to entry are impossible to overcome,
leading to industry domination by a de facto oligopoly.
Also, we have seen in the past few years, an unfortunate side
effect of high drug prices; the selling of prescription drugs
by foreign companies over the Internet. This was preceded
by US citizens making trips to Canada and Mexico just to purchase
medications at lower prices. Are prescription drugs safe,
or
at least, are the risks known? Thanks to regulation, almost
always, yes. However, the argument can be made that the 15
year delay to market and the prohibitively high price of
drugs causes more harm than the risk of ill effects of a less
regulated
drug industry. There is no simple solution. It is a balancing
act between public safety and people's health and lives.
Reasonable Measures
On June 14, 2004, Environmental Working Group petitioned the
FDA to force recalls and/or more warning labels on 356 of our
competitors' products. If the science behind their petition is
solid, then this can be a good, targeted approach. However, if
an ingredient is found to be dangerous in some studies and safe
and effective in other studies, then it is not so easy to judge.
For example, in 2000, the asbestos
in crayons scare was caused by an erroneous study.
Environmental Working Group's Skin
Deep web site
database lists 7500 personal care products and cross references
many ingredients' safety information. This is an excellent approach
to informing consumers, not indoctrinating them.
Educating consumers is an expensive and time consuming task.
In the long term, consumer awareness will lead to changes in
personal care product buying habits. The marketplace will respond
with safe and effective choices. In case you haven't noticed,
it's already happening.
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