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IPFS News Link • Health and Physical Fitness

Thousands Of "Organic" Beauty Products Found Containing Banned Chemicals

• True Activist

Beauty products that claim to be "organic" or "natural" are far from it.

When it comes to the term "organic," there's actually not as much regulation surrounding use of the word as consumers would like. The U.S. Department of Agriculture regulates organic claims in farm products, but it's the controversial Federal Drug Administration that has control over cosmetics.

Though the USDA has strict standards for organic food products, the FDA does not even have an official definition for the term "organic." On their website, the question "Does FDA have a definition for the term organic?" is met with this answer:

"No. FDA regulates cosmetics under the authority of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) and the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (FPLA). The term 'organic' is not defined in either of these laws or the regulations that FDA enforces under their authority."

The FDA does have some regulations that are overseen by the USDA via the National Organic Program, but the policing efforts when it comes to cosmetics are seriously lacking. By looking at EWG's Skin Deep database, it was determined that over 5,000 products use the word "organic" in their brand name, product name, product label or list of ingredients.

Depending on the placement of the word, certain regulations can be bypassed, and that's why most of these products are actually horrible and receive the lowest Skin Deep score possible despite claiming to be "organic." The use of chemicals is still allowed even in these seemingly wholesome products and some of these chemicals are so poor for your skin that they are banned in many countries.