The #saveourskins campaign seeks to educate people about the proven dangers of ingredients in our personal care products and spark action to reform the system.
Why do we need to #saveourskins?
Because our health depends on it
Because the US Government and corporations aren't
Because the environmental cost is too high
More than 89% of chemicals used in cosmetics have never been tested for their effects on human health. Anything applied to the skin can enter the bloodstream, causing unintended negative health effects. We're the guinea pigs.
US regulations on chemicals are severely lacking. In the European Union, 1,100 chemicals have been banned for use in personal care items, and many have been identified as carcinogens, mutagens, or reproductive toxins. In the United States, the FDA has only banned ten.
Chemicals from personal care products become concentrated in our environment and public waters after they are washed off the skin, causing genetic mutations and infertility in animals.
How can you take action?
1. Find out if it's harmful
Find out what harmful chemicals are in your products, with useful apps like Think Dirty, Healthy Living, or The Good Guide
2. #sendtoxicsback
Take unsafe personal care products and #sendtoxicsback to the corporations that made them and sell them to us with a message calling for reform.
3. Tell your community
Organize a screening of the documentary Stink! in your community or campus, invite people to bring their personal care products and scan them for harmful ingredients, and urge them to #sendtoxicsback
4. Call on Our government to act
For the first time in 75 years, Congress has the opportunity to close the gaping holes in our outdated federal cosmetic law with the Personal Care Products Safety Act.