Stand with Salon Workers for Safe Cosmetics!
No one should have to spend every working day in a toxic environment, and this week dozens of salon workers from across the country are descending on Washington, DC, sharing their stories with lawmakers and demanding safer products and safer hair and nail salons--and they need your support! Stand with salon workers in demanding safer products for a safer workplace! Write to your member of Congress today!
While each of us is exposed daily to a cocktail of toxic chemicals when we use personal care products, salon workers are also exposed to highly toxic products as they work (like hair dyes and straighteners and nail glues and solvents) -- all day, every day. And, due to a labeling loophole, salon products aren’t required to list ingredients, which means workers (and their customers) can’t make informed decisions about what they’re using.
A growing body of scientific evidence indicates there is reason for concern regarding worker exposures to chemicals found in salon products. One recent study showed that nail salon workers have higher levels of dibutyl phthalate (DBP), a reproductive and developmental toxicant, than the general population.[i] Another study found that beauticians and hairdressers are likely to have significant exposure to solvents that are linked to birth defects.[ii] Other studies have found cosmetologists are at a higher risk for having spontaneous abortions and low birth weight babies.[iii],[iv]
Unfortunately, large multi-national cosmetics companies have banded together to work with the Personal Care Products Council to draft and introduce The Cosmetic Safety Amendments Act of 2012. This is a classic Trojan horse – it may sound like a step forward on the surface but unlike The Safe Cosmetics Act, it won’t make cosmetics safer, won’t protect beauty industry workers and has no special considerations for small businesses.
Please support salon workers, and all of us, and tell Congress we need safer products, safer workplaces and thriving small businesses!
