Ask Estee Lauder to Fulfill Pink Ribbon Promises

The cosmetic giant Estee Lauder owns Origins, Aveda and MAC, among many other popular brands. Interestingly though, Estee Lauder brands each have different standards when it comes to protecting consumers’ health, including different ideas about using chemicals linked to cancer and other diseases in products. The number of studies linking cosmetics chemicals to reproductive health problems and cancer has been increasing for years, but many large cosmetics companies have been slow (or downright obstinate) about reformulating their products, claiming that small amounts of these chemicals are just fine. Estee Lauder even lobbied against legislation in California that requires cosmetics companies to notify the state when they use chemicals linked to cancer and birth defects — while simultaneously launching Pink Ribbon campaigns to “raise awareness” about breast cancer. We'd like to raise another kind of awareness: small, repeated exposures to these chemicals can affect our health, and they shouldn't be in our cosmetics. Aveda and Origins are Estee’s “greener” brands, and Origins recently made an important public commitment to make safer products. If Aveda and Origins can deliver, why can't the rest of Estee Lauder’s brands? Ask Estee "Pink Ribbon" Lauder to extend the Aveda and Origins pledges to all of its brands, from MAC to Clinique to Bumble and Bumble. This company can make cosmetics free of known and suspected toxins. In the absence of laws that protect us, we have to demand that protection ourselves.

February 09, 2010 Subject: Dear Estee Lauder Executive, Estee Lauder is one of the largest cosmetics companies in the world, operating in numerous markets and therefore potentially impacting the health of hundreds of thousands of women. I am writing to request that all of your company’s brands, some of which are marketed specifically to young women or to women who want to help raise awareness about breast cancer, meet the same standards as your Aveda and Origins brands. As stated on Origins’ Web site, the brand has committed to making cosmetic products free of phthalates, petroleum, paraffin, dyes, mineral oil, the chemical sunscreen PABA and animal ingredients, and has made a new, even stronger pledge to remove parabens, propylene glycol, DEA and synthetic fragrances and colors from its product line. Aveda’s green ingredient policy also indicates that the brand will no longer use parabens and that 80 percent of its essential oils are organic. I applaud Aveda and Origins for making this commitment to safety. This appropriate response to mounting scientific evidence of health links between cosmetics chemicals and health problems like breast cancer is important to me. In order to stand by Estee Lauder's public commitment to women’s health and beauty, I need your assurance that the health commitments made by Aveda and Origins will be extended to all of your brands. Failure to do so makes your Pink Ribbon marketing disingenuous, particularly when we're talking about chemicals linked to increased breast cancer risk. Please commit to removing all known and suspected carcinogens, mutagens and reproductive toxins from every one of your brands. That is really the “awareness-raising” that we need. We will add your signature from the information you provide.		First Name* Last Name* Email* Street* Street 2 City* State/Province* Select a state Alabama Alaska American Samoa Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware D.C. Florida Georgia Guam Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Northern Mariana Islands Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Puerto Rico Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virgin Islands Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Armed Forces (the) Americas Armed Forces Europe Armed Forces Pacific Alberta British Columbia Manitoba Newfoundland New Brunswick Nova Scotia Northwest Territories Nunavut Ontario Prince Edward Island Quebec Saskatchewan Yukon Territory Other Zip/Postal Code* Send an Email