America, the home of the free and the brave...
Do you enjoy natural products? Do you enjoy safe personal care products? Do you want the freedom to decide what products you use to cleanse your body, wash your hair, brush your teeth with? If proposed legislation finds its way through the doors, you may no longer have that choice.
I will very briefly explain (in my own simple words) the Colorado Personal Care Products Act, coming up for discussion March 1, 2010, House Bill 10-1248.
If the bill passes, anyone living in the state of Colorado will not be able to purchase personal care products that contain (but are not limited to) FD&C dyes, quite a few essential oils (all natural), most flavor oils (even natural ones), and all man-made fragrances (that have already been deemed safe by the FDA).
For the personal care product maker (including myself) I will no longer be able to ship any products into the state of Colorado that contain any of the items mentioned above (and more).
Good-bye Avon, good-bye Mary Kay, good-bye buying personal care items from people such as myself that pride themselves on purity, un-compromised ingredients, cleanliness, and personal safety. If the bill passes it will affect Colorado first, but I can see it snowballing to your own state and mine.
What is their thinking? They want to eliminate any ingredients that can lead to cancer. The bill is written in very broad terms. It is not clear how testing will be completed. It is not clear if testing, for example, will include one safe drop of essential oil, or an IV line dripping with no dilution, which will surely make a rat sick, filled with cancer.
In my own personal life, this bill could affect me greatly (my own health care and business). It can affect your choice of personal care items. It can affect the choice of natural and holistic care that you choose to give yourself and your family. A few nights ago I made a rub for myself, for sore legs and knees. If this bill passes, I will no longer be able to obtain the very natural, beautiful oils that I used to take care of my body safely.
Can you help?
Perhaps you can, and I hope you do. March 1, 2010 is the day they will be listening to us (small and large business owners, and consumers).
To read in more detail, including links to the proposed act itself, please go to: The Slippery Slope of Bad Science, written byKayla Fioravanti, of Essential Wholesale. It is eye-opening!
Do an online search for this bill as well. There are many interesting articles written by consumers and small business owners that more deeply explain the ramifications of the proposed bill.
In closing, I shake my head at the items that can be purchased that may lead to cancer, #1 cigarettes, which are money-makers, and definitely not banned. So, why make it illegal to take care of our own bodies as we see fit? A drop of essential oil isn’t going to make a person sick, nor is our bar of soap so carefully made (with ingredients that have already been proven safe). Where are our American rights going?
Annies Goat Hill Handcrafted Soaps 
Very well put! Since I am also in the same boat as you, I can see this snowballing into a nationwide issue. Because I am a soap-maker AND a registered nurse, I see on a daily basis what cigarettes and alcoholism do to a person. Both are literally death-dealing, yet legal! Perhaps Colorado should focus on these areas instead of picking on something like essential oils.
Perhaps they should be taking a look at the amazing items called “food” in fast food restaurants or processed foods sold in super markets that are loaded with stuff that affect our health, such as weight gain, cholesterol, and high blood pressure. Oooooh…don’t get me started!!!!
I don’t think I will die because I used a handmade bar of soap containing natural herbs and oils on a regular basis.
Sounds pretty ridiculous, doesn’t it?
You know, anything will kill us when consumed in excess. Anything, including life-sustaining water. Yes, it does sound pretty rediculous.
Good post!
Amy
I just received several e-mails from my local elected officials, unfortunately they are the Republicans who , in our state, our completely dominated and out-numbered by Dems in the House, Senate, Governor..and I feel most of us in this state have lost so much of all we have held dear and taken for granted. Our own governor and her co-horts actually decided they did not have to follow a bill legally voted on and approved by the people that dis-allowed taxes to go up unless approved by a certain majority vote of the people. Out the window it went, along with numerous other common sense things because the Democrats ACTUALLY stated they knew what was best for us, so Mary ( I say tongue-in-cheek) don’t you know it is for our own good?
So sorry, I got carried away too….
Kathy, can you repeat that? Tell me again, so perhaps it will sink in that it is for our own good.
Just don’t get me started!!
Blow drying my hair, chewing bubblegum and eating potatoes will give me cancer. Are they gonna take that away, too? Sheesh!!
I just read an article about the miserable effects from chewing bubblegum…just kidding…have a good one, Becky.
I kept this post simple, not too wordy, on purpose, and I plan to do the same with the follow-up.
The proposed legislation failed 4-7.
The overall deciding factor was that they did not have the science needed to determine the safety of the products and/or individual ingredients.
In my opinion, why spend money when it has already been spent (by the US goverment, FDA), time and time again, determining that particular ingredients are safe.
Regarding questionable cosmetic ingredients, nobody is going to eat several sticks of lipstick a day, for the rest of their life. Nobody is going to dump 10 gallons of a particular ingredient in their bathtub, each and every day, for the rest of their life. Each ingredient has been deemed safe by the FDA, and is included in cosmetics at a very safe level. The problem comes in when testing of rats is equal to the extremes (like the examples I just gave), instead of rats that are exposed to the ingredients in a diluted state (equal to those in cosmetics). We can all die, and die of cancer, when exposed to most anything at an unsafe level.