Proposed federal legislation would limit harmful chemicals in beauty products

New proposed federal legislation would take steps to reduce exposure to potentially harmful chemicals in cosmetic products.

The package of four bills — together called the “Safer Beauty Bill Package,” and filed July 17 by Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky along with three other congresswomen, including Rep. Ayanna Pressley — would take a host of moves to try to limit exposure of harmful chemicals in cosmetic products. It would include banning 18 additional chemicals, requiring greater transparency and labeling, and supporting the development of safer alternatives.

In a statement, Pressley pointed to the adverse health effects that can disproportionately affect women of color who may use the products at a higher rate.

“Black women, girls and salon workers should be able to show up every day as our beautiful, authentic selves, without fear for our health and safety,” Pressley said in a statement. “It’s past time that we regulate these hazardous products and affirm our right to safer alternatives.”

According to a February report from the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit group that does advocacy around toxic chemicals, 80% of the cosmetic products it identified as being marketed toward Black women ranked as having a moderate or high hazard level using the group’s Skin Deep database, a ranking system that tracks hazards like cancer risk, reproductive and developmental harms, neurotoxicity and the ability of a product to disrupt the body’s hormonal systems.

The proposed legislation was refiled in Congress — it has previously been submitted twice before and was first filed in 2019 — and builds off the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022, a Biden-era law that expanded oversight from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration into regulation of the cosmetics industry.

Supporters point to greater regulation in the European Union. In a virtual press conference, July 17, advocates pointed to a list of over 2,000 chemicals that the EU has banned in cosmetic products. In the United States, the FDA has restricted less than 20.

Following the passage of the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act, a number of states started taking their own action, said Jasmine McDonald, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University. But advocates said the proposed laws would bring needed federal guidance to support efforts nationwide.

“We still need the FDA to truly commit to saying these chemicals should not be in these products,” McDonald said. “It should not be a cherry pick-all for states to make that decision, it should just be a federal decision.”

The package is composed of four bills, which advocates and legislators say cover almost all aspects of personal care product safety.

One bill, the Toxic-Free Beauty Act, would ban an additional 18 chemicals as well as the chemical classes of phthalates and formaldehyde-releasing preservatives.

Another, the Cosmetic Supply Chain Transparency Act, would require the suppliers of raw materials, ingredients and private-label products to fully disclose the ingredients in products and the safety data needed to cosmetics companies.

The third, the Cosmetic Hazardous Ingredient Right to Know Act, would require clearer and more complete labeling of often unlabeled chemicals in personal care products.

And the fourth, the Cosmetic Safety Protections for Communities of Color and Salon Workers Act, would fund research and educational materials for the development of safer chemical alternatives to protect the health of women and salon workers.

Advocates at the press conference said they are optimistic that the legislation — which was filed by all Democratic lawmakers — might pass, even in the current Congress which is controlled by Republicans and closely divided along party lines.

“Exposure to toxic chemicals in the beauty and personal care products that we use every day as consumers and as salon workers does not discriminate based on party affiliation,” said Janet Nudelman, senior director of program and policy and director of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics at the Breast Cancer Prevention Partners. “This is an equal opportunity offender in terms of the exposures, the toxic chemicals in these products.”

Nudelman pointed to a 2020 law in California that banned a group of chemicals known as PFAS, or forever chemicals, in cosmetics, which was passed unanimously.

As of July 28, no Republican legislators had signed on as co-sponsors.

But Nudelman expressed other hope as well that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services might throw its support behind the legislation. Some of the chemicals that the bills look to ban in cosmetic products, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has also looked to limit in food and food packaging.

“We have not yet made the case to him, but we think when we do, he’s going to be very interested in what we have to say,” Nudelman said. “Having the administration’s support of this bill package would signal to his party in Congress that these are bills they should be interested in supporting as well.”