Walgreens | Be a Seed for Change

a repost

By Shawn Radcliffe

Sat, Aug 31, 2013Tests ordered by an environmental watchdog group revealed the presence of a cancer-causing chemical in dozens of personal care products that lack a warning label required by California law.

The compound, a chemically modified form of coconut oil—cocamide diethanolamine (cocamide DEA)—is used as a foaming agent or thickener in soaps, shampoos, conditioners, and similar products.

Carcinogenic Ingredients in Your Personal Care Products?

No Warning Labels

An independent laboratory commissioned by the Center for Environmental Health (CEH) tested the products to determine how much cocamide DEA was present. CEH purchased these products after June 2013 from online and local California retailers, such as Trader Joe’s, Walmart, Kohl’s, and Babies R Us.

Many of the products tested contained more than 10,000 parts per million (ppm) of cocamide DEA. In all, CEH identified 98 products with cocamide DEA among the ingredients, none of which carried the warning required by state law.

“The state has not set a [safety] level specific to cocamide DEA,” says Charles Margulis, Communications Director and Food Program Director of CEH, “but the levels we found exceed levels typical for carcinogens.”

What’s in Your Beauty Products?

To comply with California’s Proposition 65, companies are still required to provide a “clear and reasonable” warning to consumers when products they sell or produce contain chemicals listed by the state as harmful. This includes compounds known to cause cancer or birth defects.

Cocamide DEA was added to the California list of harmful chemicals in 2012 after the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) published its review of the chemical’s safety, which was based upon skin exposure tests in animals. “There is sufficient evidence in experimental animals for the carcinogenicity of coconut oil diethanolamine condensate,” the agency writes.

Environmental Group Files Lawsuit

In response to the laboratory results, the CEH filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against four companies—Walgreens, Lake Consumer Products, Ultimark Products, and Todd Christopher International.

“Our demand is that companies reformulate their products, without cocamide DEA,” says Margulis. “There are many similar shampoos and soaps on the market made without the chemical, so it is obviously possible to make the products safer.”

The CEH also sent legal letters advising more than 100 other companies producing or selling products containing the chemical that their products violate Proposition 65.

In the lawsuit, which was filed in California Superior Court in Alameda County, the CEH accuses the companies of “knowingly and intentionally exposing individuals to cocamide DEA without first giving clear and reasonable warnings to such individuals regarding the carcinogenicity of cocamide DEA.”

Dangerous Ingredients to Watch Out For in Cosmetics

The lawsuit asks the court to fine the companies $2,500 a day for each violation and prevent them from selling products containing cocamide DEA in California without a clear warning label.

The CEH hopes these short-term actions, along with their continuing efforts, will have an even wider effect.

“Under the law, companies can simply label,” says Margulis, “but we’ve had hundreds of Prop 65 cases over 17 years of doing this work, and in over 95 percent of these cases, we have won legally binding agreements that require companies to reformulate their products. We expect the same in these cases.”

If there’s one question UCS gets asked a lot it’s this: “Why don’t you folks all work together?” But here at the Union of Concerned Scientists, collaboration is a guiding principle. We partner with many of the nation’s leading scientists, environmental and consumer protection organizations, and decision-makers in government to achieve our common goal: a healthy, safe, and sustainable future.
Right now, we’re teaming up with our friends at the League of Conservation Voters to pressure top retailers to keep hazardous chemicals out of their products.
Join us in taking action with the League of Conservation Voters. Send a message now asking the nation’s biggest retailers to keep toxic chemicals off their shelves >>
For years, UCS has worked as part of the Safer Chemicals Healthy Families Coalition to ensure that policy makers and consumers have access to accurate scientific information about the toxic chemicals in our communities and consumer products. Like you, we believe that people need access to adequate information about toxics if they are to make informed decisions that protect the health of their families. Now you can take the next step by taking action with the League of Conservation Voters to urge retailers to take toxic chemicals out of their stores.

Tell our nation’s biggest retailers to take toxic chemicals out of their stores! Add your name to our petition for safe products here >>

Want to keep harmful chemicals out of our everyday products?

Sign our petition to the biggest retailers to keep toxic chemicals off the shelves!

When you stopped to grab a bottle of shampoo, did anyone tell you that it could contain cancer-causing chemicals? Have you checked if that shirt you bought is kept wrinkle-free by formaldehyde? Do you know if that couch you bought is releasing chemicals that could harm your children’s mental development?
Most of the time, I don’t. It’s impossible to know all the right questions to ask when we go to the store to keep ourselves and our families safe. And frankly, it shouldn’t be our job. The stores where we shop should watch out for us by asking their suppliers to keep toxic chemicals out of their products. But they won’t do it unless we make them.
Sign our petition urging the biggest retailers to keep products with toxic chemicals off their shelves now >>
In April, we joined with the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families coalition on a campaign called “Mind the Store,” which asks major retailers to protect us by keeping the Hazardous 100+ toxic chemicals out of their products.
More than 40,000 people took action and we were heard! Target and Walmart responded to our petition by announcing that they would take some of the most dangerous chemicals out of the products they sell.
Now we need your help to make sure that other major retailers like Walgreens, Costco, and Safeway follow suit. These retailers are often stuck in the same place we are. Our broken federal laws mean they have limited access to basic health and safety information on toxic chemicals sold in their very own stores.
But they have the power to ask the questions and make the demands to keep us safe. And as we saw with Target and Walmart, if they hear from enough of their customers, these major retailers will tell their suppliers to take theseHazardous 100+ chemicals out of their products.
So help us show these major retailers that their customers are demanding toxic-free products. Sign our petition here >>
Our nation’s chemical laws may be broken, but we don’t have to wait for progress in Washington to start making our stores and homes safer.
With your voice and the thousands of others dedicated to creating safer chemicals that will lead to healthier families, we can create real change and accountability for the suppliers now and make sure our neighbors are minding their stores!