Consumer Guides to Toxic Chemicals in Toys and Beauty Products

From the websites:

We launched HealthyToys.org because children's products should not contain toxic chemicals! No government agency is adequately assuring that children's products do not contain harmful chemicals. Nor does any agency require labeling or disclosure to inform consumers about the chemical components of children's products. HealthyToys.org was launched to address the failures of our current system to regulate chemicals in products.

HealthyToys.org is a first step in providing parents, grandparents, and others who care about children with the information they need to make better choices when purchasing toys and other children's products.

Our tests, and previous independent tests, have verified that some toys contain chemicals of concern including heavy metals such as lead and cadmium. In nearly all cases, the presence of these toxic chemicals in consumer products is perfectly legal in the United States. The only U.S. law restricting lead in toys applies only to paint. And, other than that lead paint standard, currently the only standard for a small group of toxic chemicals in children's toys is a voluntary industry standard that cannot be enforced. Children's jewelry is ineffectively regulated, and jewelry with high levels of dangerous chemicals are commonly found on store shelves.

Click this link to learn more about http://healthytoys.org.
HealthyToys.org is a project of the Ecology Center, a nonprofit organization. For more information, visit http://www.EcoCenter.org.
Before you go shopping for toys, check out the tips for consumers and the toy list of potentially dangerous toys at ToySafety.net.

Campaign For Safe Cosmetics

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is a coalition of women's, public health, labor, environmental health and consumer-rights groups. The goal is to protect the health of consumers and workers by requiring the health and beauty industry to phase out the use of chemicals linked to cancer, birth defects and other health problems, and replace them with safer alternatives.

Personal care products like shampoo, conditioner, after shave, lotion and makeup are not regulated by the FDA or any other government agency. It is perfectly legal and very common for companies to use ingredients that are known or suspected to be carcinogens, mutagens or reproductive toxins in their products. Consumers buy these products at drug stores, grocery stores, online or in salons, usually without questioning the product's safety.

They are asking cosmetics and personal care products companies to sign the Compact for Safe Cosmetics (also known as the Compact for the Global Production of Safer Health and Beauty Products), a pledge to remove toxic chemicals and replace them with safer alternatives in every market they serve. As of August 2007, 600 companies have signed the Compact -- and that number increases every day.

Click this link to learn more aabout http://www.safecosmetics.org.

SkinDeep: Cosmetic Safety Database

SkinDeep is a cosmetic safety database that lists safety information for over 41,000 cosmetics and personal care products. You can look up particular products and find out if they are toxic or safe to use. The database is created and maintained by researchers at the Environmental Working Group.

You can search the database by keyword or browse products by categories such as makeup, skin care, hair care, nail care, baby care, oral care and fragrance. Each listed product has a clear safety score and detailed overview.

Click this link to visit SkinDeep at http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com.