How to be an educated consumer
Until research sways (or doesn’t sway) more minds and brings stricter control over the sorts of chemicals in question, cosmetics activists such as Malkan urge consumers to press for more regulation of the industry.
Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has some authority over beauty products, the cosmetics industry is a largely self-regulating and self-testing one, with a focus on weeding out products that pose immediate and obvious health risks, such as allergic reactions or skin irritation.
Malkan advises women to serve as their own regulators: "The government is not protecting us and the companies are not protecting us, so we have to protect ourselves."
To that end, she offers some tips for sorting through the maze of makeup, lotions, potions, creams, and gels out there.
• Choose products with fewer ingredients and fewer chemicals.
• Before buying, think to yourself, "Do I really need this product?" and consider whether you can cut it from your daily routine.
• For more on cosmetics ingredients, visit the EWG's cosmetics database, Skin Deep. (The Personal Care Products Council also offers a website, Cosmeticsinfo.org, with information about ingredients and regulation.)
Dr. Audeh has his own list of toxic products that teenage girls should avoid to make sure they’re not increasing their breast cancer risk—it includes cigarette smoke, high-fat diets, and diets with lots of red meat—but he doesn’t believe soaps and makeup belong at the top of it.
"I am not claiming that exposure to estrogenic chemicals from cosmetics are totally without health risks," says Dr. Audeh. "But it is hard to argue that of all these things, cosmetics are the most important."
