In November of last year Health Canada updated cosmetics regulations, outlining that all cosmetics sold in Canada should be labeled with a list of ingredients in descending order of content, similar to that already adopted by the food industry.
Although the regulations do not come into full force until November of this year, a number of lobby groups in Canada have been trying to orchestrate a campaign that takes this regulation one step further by actually stating which ingredients may be potentially harmful.
Lobby groups, such as Breast Cancer Action Montreal (BCAM), which is affiliated to the US Campaign For Safe Cosmetics, believe that a number of ingredients widely used in personal care products are potential carcinogens.
Currently BCAM is running a highly publicized campaign in Montreal to bring about greater awareness of labeling regulations for personal care products. There are a number of serious shortfalls in the labeling of potentially dangerous ingredients.
The lobby group wants things to be in line with those currently enforced in the EU, where regulations are tighter and many potentially dangerous ingredients, known to be hormonal disrupters, carcinogens or have effects on reproduction, are outlawed for use in personal care products.
BCAM advocates describe current Canadian labeling regulations, even the recently updated one, as being light years from that currently in force in Europe, which is why the organization is mounting a campaign, six months after the new labeling regulations were first announced.
This move is being backed nationwide by the Canadian Cancer Society (CAC) which has an on-going campaign based on right to know principals.
The principals follow that any known carcinogenic ingredient should be clearly indicated on the ingredients label, suggestions that are backed up by a number of lobby groups represented by the Canadian Strategy for Cancer Control's National Committee on Environmental and Occupational Exposures, of which CAC is a member
Ultimately the efforts by the lobby groups are mirroring those made by groups in California, where successful lobbying led to the adoption of the Californian Safe Cosmetics Act of 2005.
This law actually binds manufacturers to label ingredients that are known to be carcinogens or else have been linked to birth defects such as reproductive problems.
