Regulating Cosmetics Essay

Government regulation on food, drinks and medicine has created safer products for public use. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is constantly working hard at making sure that the food and medicine produced and sold by corporations are safe for public health and are produced in an ethical manner. Food and pharmaceutical corporations are forced to follow strict guidelines so that their products are allowed to be sold in the United States. Much of the public doesn’t realize that the Food and Drug Administration is also in charge of regulating the cosmetics that are sold within the United States. However, unlike food and drugs, cosmetics companies are loosely regulated and given a greater freedom to produce items they choose. Various cosmetics

Recently, several non-profit organizations have begun promoting and increasing awareness on the harmful ingredients several cosmetic products contain. Websites like www.ewg.org and www.safecosmetics.org provide information on the ingredients these cosmetic products contain and a list of the ones that should be avoided. Nevertheless, many ingredients shown to have some medical or environmental risk are still used in many products. As the Environmental Working Group state, “ Since FDA does little to regulate ingredient safety, it has authorized the cosmetics industry to police itself through its Cosmetics Ingredient Review panel. In its more than 30-year history, the industry panel has declared only 11 ingredients or chemical groups to be unsafe”(Myths on Cosmetic Safety). Without any regulation these ingredients will continually be used in cosmetic

Petrolatum has been used for over a hundred years to help cure rashes, dry skin and as a lubricant. It is found in many products and has been determined safe by the cosmetic industry. A major concern brought about by The Environment Working Group is, “that petrolatum has a very high risk of contamination from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), cancer-causing chemicals found in crude oil and its by-products”(Petrolatum). The Environment Working Group rates petrolatum a four out of ten scale, which is considered a moderate hazard. For this reason many cosmetic companies have begun to discontinue the use of petrolatum in many of their products. Still, there are several products that continue to use it because of how cheap and easy it is to produce. While further research needs to be conducted to determine whether petrolatum is a public health threat, petrolatum is known to have an environmental impact. Since petrolatum is a by-product of crude oil, it is a non-renewable