Labeling Chemicals Helps Lower Toxic Load
Study Finds That A California Law Has National Reach. Plus, The 2024 Retailer Report Card Is Here Just In Time For Holiday Shopping.
Want a proven method for lowering your exposure to harmful chemicals in consumer products? It’s easy. Just label them.
A California ballot initiative that passed in the mid 1980s known as Proposition 65, or the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, requires businesses to inform state residents about exposures to chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm.
This law is considered one of the most extensive toxic rules on the books, and many call it controversial, but according to a new study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, it’s effective, and not just in California, but throughout the United States.
“Not only have people’s exposures to specific toxic chemicals gone down in California, but we also see exposures going down across the country driven in part by Proposition 65,” lead author Kristin Knox, a research scientist at Silent Spring Institute, said in a statement.
While it’s nearly impossible to avoid all chemicals, this law helps consumers make informed choices about common household products, and work to lessen their exposure to unwanted chemicals.
Defining Toxic Substances & Their Impact
Terms like toxic substance, toxic chemical, or poison are used a lot today. Let’s define it as any substance that on ingestion, inhalation, absorption, or exposure within the body, even in relatively small amounts, can cause disorder or harm.
Any chemical can be toxic or harmful under the right conditions. Many factors will impact how harmful a substance can be, including how much and by what means a person is exposed and how sensitive that person may be to a substance.
Each person is different in terms of constitution, immunity, and more, which is why people display different health problems and issues from the same substance. Some people may not show any signs for years, or ever, after exposure to a toxin, while others may become sick more quickly.
One of the reasons Prop 65 works so well is because it is a law with enforcement to back it up. I have strong feelings that rules are the most potent when they are properly enforced.
If a product is shown to have a chemical load above a safe level, or if Prop 65 chemicals are present in a product that does not have a warning label, a lawsuit can be filed against the company.
The study’s findings can help inform policies and programs to further curb the use of toxic chemicals in products like cosmetics, cleaning supplies, plastics, and food packaging, as well as spark new research on how regulations and the marketplace influence people’s exposures.
Under Prop 65, California maintains a list of more than 850 chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects, or reproductive harm. Companies that sell products in California are required to warn consumers if their products expose them to harmful amounts of the chemicals.
Check out the current list here.
The list includes an array of naturally occurring and synthetic chemicals such as additives or ingredients in pesticides, common household products, food, drugs, dyes, or solvents. Listed chemicals may also be used in manufacturing and construction, or they may be byproducts of chemical processes, such as motor vehicle exhaust.
Working in collaboration with researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, Knox and her team pulled data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Every year, the federal program collects health data from adults and children around the country. The program also collects people’s blood and urine samples and tests them for synthetic chemicals and pollutants.
The researchers analyzed data for 37 bio-monitored chemicals through NHANES, including 26 listed under Prop 65 (the remaining 11 were not listed). The analysis showed that, for most of these chemicals, levels in people’s bodies went down both in California and nationwide in the years following the chemicals’ listing.
“This aligns with what we’ve learned by interviewing companies,” Knox said. “When companies reformulate their products to avoid Prop 65 chemicals, they end up doing that for all their products, not just those sold in California.”
Overall, California residents had a lower body burden than the general population. Levels of 18 of the 37 bio-monitored chemicals were lower in California compared with the rest of the U.S. These included diesel-related chemicals, as well as several phthalates, BPA, and PFAS.
The lower levels may reflect more local media coverage for Prop 65 enforcement and litigation, leading more people in the state to avoid products with harmful ingredients. For example, the state’s stricter diesel emissions standards likely accounted for the lower exposures to chemicals from diesel exhaust.
“Our finding that Californians are generally less exposed to toxic chemicals than are other Americans has potentially far-reaching implications,” said co-author Claudia Polsky, Director of the Environmental Law Clinic at UC Berkeley School of Law. “It suggests a tangible public health payoff from the state's more stringent environmental regulations. We hope other researchers will probe this issue further so we can better understand which regulations work, and why.”
Want to avoid toxic exposures from the products you use? These two apps can help.
Silent Spring’s Detox Me app uses simple, research-based tips to help you reduce exposure to toxic chemicals where you live, work, and play.
Environmental Working Group’s Healthy Living app includes rating for more than 120,000 food and personal care products. Scan a product’s barcode, search it by name, or browse by category and get an easy-to-understand score of 1 to 10 (1 being the best) that’s backed by science.
Tis The Season To Sparkle (Without Toxic Chemicals)…
With Black Friday deals already hitting inboxes and shelves, let’s talk about one way to shop smarter this holidays season. Get to know which retailers are “naughty or nice” when it comes to toxic chemicals.
The 2024 Retailer Report Card released by Toxic Free Future, a nonprofit consumer product safety organization, is naming the major retailers who are failing to protect consumers from hazardous chemicals and plastics in the products they sell.
Of the top 50 retailers, 17 received a grade of F, placing them in the report’s “Toxic Hall of Shame.” Many of these retailers have not taken basic steps to ensure the safety of the products they sell.
More than half of the retailers evaluated do not ask their suppliers to disclose the chemical ingredients used in their products. Without full transparency, it’s impossible to assess the safety of chemicals in products sold to consumers.
Some of the lowest-ranked retailers are restaurant giants such as McDonald’s, Chipotle, Subway and Yum! Brands, which owns KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. Inspire Brands, which owns Arby’s, Baskin-Robbins, Buffalo Wild Wings, Dunkin’, Jimmy John’s, and Sonic also ranked low on the list along with dollar store chain Five Below.
But you might be surprised by two other huge grocery stores chains that received failing grades: Trader Joe’s and Publix. These retailers earned poor grades for their lack of action in addressing the use of toxic chemicals and harmful plastics.
Only four companies in the top 50 retailers earned an A or A-. Those companies are Apple, Sephora, Target, and Walmart.
Three companies, Ulta Beauty, IKEA, and Whole Foods Market, received B grades.
Ulta Beauty was called out as the most improved company, nearly doubling its score since 2021.
“Ulta Beauty is proud of the progress we have made in advancing our commitment to transparency and providing safer alternatives,” Jodi Caro, general counsel, chief risk and compliance officer at Ulta Beauty, told CNN. “This year, we published our first Chemical Policy, affirming our dedication to ingredient transparency, and joined the ‘Know Better, Do Better’ collaboration to strengthen chemical safety across the beauty industry.”
In the report, companies were graded on how committed they are to change, how easily consumers can tell what’s inside their products, and how willing they are to ask manufacturers in their supply chain to get rid of a number of chemicals of high concern before they are put on shelves.
“With PFAS in our drinking water and toxics found in black plastic spatulas, it is shocking how little retailers are doing to help solve this health crisis linked to hazardous chemicals and plastics in consumer products,” said Cheri Peele, co-author of the 2024 report and senior project manager for Toxic-Free Future, in a statement. “Retailers must require ingredient transparency, ban the most hazardous chemicals and plastics in products and packaging, and invest in safer solutions.”
The report outlines clear steps that retailers must take to improve their performance and protect public health. These include embracing The Four Essential Elements for a Safer Marketplace, which includes:
adopting comprehensive safer chemicals policies
requiring full transparency from suppliers
restricting toxic chemicals and plastics, such as PFAS and PVC, in products and packaging
implementing safer solutions to chemicals and plastics of high concern
For the first time, the report also evaluated retailers against the Ban the Bad Priority List, a list of chemicals, chemical classes, and plastics of high concern that retailers should prioritize for reduction and elimination.
Read the full report at RetailerReportCard.com and support retailers who value transparency and make it easy for you to buy less toxic gifts.
Or swap Black Friday deals for Buy Nothing Day this season to save money, cut down on clutter, and help reduce your exposure to toxic chemicals.
Are you surprised by the recent study showing how labeling toxins can help reduce our exposure? What are your plans for a toxic-free holiday season?