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Campaign For Safe Cosmetics

November 1, 2011 by · Comments Off on Campaign For Safe Cosmetics 

Campaign For Safe Cosmetics, Two chemicals considered harmful to babies stay in baby shampoo Johnson & Johnson has sold in the U.S., although the company already has a version without them, according to a coalition of health and the environment .

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, without success, has urging the world’s largest health care for 2 1 / 2 years to eliminate possible traces of cancer-causing chemicals – dioxane and a substance called quaternium-15, which releases formaldehyde – from Johnson’s baby shampoo, a product of its signature.

Johnson & Johnson said it is reducing or phasing out of chemicals, but did not directly respond to the demands of the campaign.

Now the group is increasing the pressure and urging consumers to boycott products Johnson & Johnson baby until the company agrees to remove the chemicals in baby products sold around the world.

“Johnson & Johnson can clearly safer baby shampoo in all markets around the world, but it is doing,” said Lisa Archer, director of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. “It’s clearly a double standard, which can be easily fixed.”

New campaign report, “Baby Tub is still toxic,” is set to be released on Tuesday, when the group was the launch of the boycott through its website, http://www.safecosmetics.org.

Archer said his group has met with representatives of Johnson & Johnson three times since the spring of 2009, and is disappointed that the company is not making it safer baby shampoo and other products in the U.S. when it done in other places.

On Monday, the campaign sent a letter to Johnson & Johnson, signed by about 25 environmental groups, doctors and others who represent some 3.5 million people in the U.S. and elsewhere. It urges the company to publicly commit 15 November to the elimination of all chemical products care staff worldwide.

In response, Johnson & Johnson, said in a statement that the release of formaldehyde condoms are safe and approved by regulators in the U.S. and other countries, but is its phasing out baby products. He said he also is the reformulation of baby products to reduce the level of dioxane below detectable levels. But did not say whether or respond to the demands of the campaign total.

The letter, addressed to CEO William Weldon, was signed by groups like the Breast Cancer Fund, Environmental Working Group, Friends of the Earth, American Nurses Association, Physicians for Social Responsibility and Green America.

“Although the chemicals that can be low level, why risk it?” Tracey Woodruff, said J., Associate Professor and Director of Reproductive Health and the Environment at the University of California at San Francisco.

Woodruff, who is not involved in the campaign, indicated that the levels of chemicals in baby products added to the children of other chemicals are exposed every day.

According to the report, obtained by The Associated Press, one of the suspected chemicals, Quaternium-15, is a preservative that kills bacteria by releasing formaldehyde. Formaldehyde, used as a disinfectant and embalming fluid, was declared a known human carcinogen in June by the National Toxicology Program. Formaldehyde is also a skin, eye and respiratory irritation.

Quaternium-15 is still an ingredient in baby shampoo Johnson & Johnson sells in the U.S., Canada, China, Indonesia and Australia, but the investigation of the campaign this summer have not found the same product sold in at least eight other countries from the UK and Denmark to Japan and South Africa.

The second chemical, 1,4-dioxane is considered a probable carcinogen. It is a byproduct of a process for the manufacture of chemical products more soluble and softer on the skin.

The campaign of May 2009 report, called “No more toxic bath,” said that studies conducted by an independent laboratory hired Analytical Sciences LLC Petaluma, California, found that 1,4-dioxane was contained in the baby shampoo Johnson & Johnson, oatmeal soap for babies, Baby Care Moisture Wash and Aveeno Baby Soothing Relief Creamy Wash

According to the report, the company has launched a baby shampoo Johnson called Naturals, which sells in the U.S., which does not include 1.4-dioxane. However, the original Johnson baby shampoo, which costs about half, has been reformulated for the U.S. market, according to the campaign.

Analytical Sciences tested several samples of J & J baby products from the U.S. the first report finding low levels of chemicals. After that, according to Archer, consumer groups in South Africa, Sweden and Japan in contact with your group to take into account that quaternium-15 was not being used in products in their countries. The updated report was based on a review of the ingredients label baby products Johnson & Johnson in 13 countries.

Archer said some of the countries where the products contain no harsh chemicals they had bans in personal care products, but not others.

Woodruff, who is investigating the health effects of chemicals, said there is evidence that formaldehyde is associated with cancers of the nose, lungs and blood like leukemia. He said the baby’s scalp is more permeable than adults and therefore exposure to chemicals can cause more harm to infants than in adults.

“It’s exposing a child during a very vulnerable period of development when the effect may be worse,” said Woodruff.

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