Coming Clean on Personal Care Products

Forbes.com on September 22, 2006 and numerous other outlets carried a story about cosmetics safety from HealthDay by E.J. Mundell that cited ACSH:

Not everyone agrees that consumers need to worry about the products they apply to their bodies each day, however. In a prepared statement, scientists at the American Council on Science and Health -- which describes itself as a consumer-based advocacy group that receives some "no strings attached" funding from the cosmetics industry -- said organizations like the EWG "have invested a great deal of work in publicizing supposed health risks from myriad chemicals that have long been in everyday use with no evidence of harm to humans."

According to the New York City-based ACSH, much of the evidence for these "scares" relies on high-dose animal tests that "are not good predictors of human cancer risk."

The EWG mentioned in the passage is the Environmental Working Group, a chronic fearmongering organization that has now even taken to denouncing fluoride. For more on the use of high-dose animal tests, see ACSH's book America's War on "Carcinogens". For more on cosmetics safety, see ACSH's What's the Story? Health Claims Against Cosmetics: How Do They Look in the Light?