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Beauty and personal care products marketed to women of color often contain more toxic ingredients than products marketed to white women. As a result, women of color face greater exposure to toxic ingredients used in beauty and personal care products. This is unacceptable. Women of color deserve the same access to safer beauty products.

Take a stand.

Help spread the word about Clean Beauty Justice on your social channels.

#cleanbeautyjustice

Beauty’s Toxic Equity Problem

Your personal care products, from hair moisturizer to mascara, can expose you to toxic chemical ingredients, like parabens, phthalates, phenols and mercury. Even small amounts of exposure to certain chemicals are linked to fertility issues, cancer and more. And these exposures add up over time.

Clean beauty is on the rise, but efforts are predominantly focused on products marketed to white women. Products for darker skin tones and for curly, coily hair types are often ignored.

The color of your skin or texture of your hair shouldn’t block your access to clean beauty products.

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The Road To Clean Beauty Justice

Companies need to put equity front-and-center in their efforts to put safer personal care and beauty products on store shelves.

Here’s how.

Make an Institutional Commitment

Create a chemical policy that includes a specific, time-bound goal to incorporate equity that ensures safer products across your product portfolio.

Increase Supply Chain Transparency

Require ingredient disclosure from your suppliers and enhance your data management systems to be able to track product and ingredient hotspots.

Inform Consumers

Disclose ingredient and product information to your customers to support informed decision-making and build trust.

Incorporate safer product design

Create clear and credible criteria for prioritizing chemical safety in products that are marketed to people of color.

Make a Public Commitment

Make your commitment public to encourage other companies to drive a safer and more equitable marketplace.

The Facts

Resources & Partners

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Footnotes

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fourth National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals.Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/exposurereport/index.html

2. Breast Cancer Prevention Partners. (2021). Safer Beauty Bill Package. https://www.bcpp.org/resource/safer-beauty-bill-package-2021/

3. McKelvey W, Jeffery N, Clark N, Kass D, Parsons PJ. Population-based inorganic mercury biomonitoring and the identification of skin care products as a source of exposure in New York City. Environ Health Perspect. 2011;119(2):203-209. doi:10.1289/ehp.1002396

4. James-Todd T, Terry MB, Rich-Edwards J, Deierlein A, Senie R. Childhood hair product use and earlier age at menarche in a racially diverse study population: a pilot study. Ann Epidemiol. 2011;21(6):461-465. doi:10.1016/j.annepidem.2011.01.009

5. Helm JS, Nishioka M, Brody JG, Rudel RA, Dodson RE. Measurement of endocrine disrupting and asthma-associated chemicals in hair products used by Black women. Environ Res. 2018;165:448-458. doi:10.1016/j.envres.2018.03.030

6. Helm JS, Nishioka M, Brody JG, Rudel RA, Dodson RE. Measurement of endocrine disrupting and asthma-associated chemicals in hair products used by Black women. Environ Res. 2018;165:448-458. doi:10.1016/j.envres.2018.03.030

7. James-Todd T, Connolly L, Preston EV, et al. Hormonal activity in commonly used Black hair care products: evaluating hormone disruption as a plausible contribution to health disparities. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol. 2021;31(3):476-486. doi:10.1038/s41370-021-00335-3

8. Boyle MD, Kavi LK, Louis LM, et al. Occupational exposures to phthalates among Black and Latina U.S. hairdressers serving an ethnically diverse clientele: a pilot study. Environ Sci Technol. 2021;55(12):8128-8138. doi:10.1021/acs.est.1c00427

9. Johnson, P.I. (2022, May 12). Personal Care Product Use and Chemical Exposure among Black, Latina, and Vietnamese Women in California Communities [PowerPoint slides]. https://www.healthandenvironment.org/assets/images/webinarimages/2022.05.12_CAPABLE_PaulaJ.pdf