Posted by Ariella  on  08/28/2011  at  01:55 PM

Ms. Mia Davis and Amy Lubitow,

I acknowledge the both of you for bringing up the true statements about Avon. Ms. Janelle Sorenson, I am sad to say the comments these two women have stated are true. Despite Avon’s Product Safety and charity work for Breast Cancer, they have been allowing thier consumers to use thier products that consist of carcinogenic chemicals that stimulate cancer cells, particularly breast cancer. Attached, is an article providing more information about this matter.

In fact, I have an Aunt that was an Avon Consultant that used thier products. Though breast cancer is not genetic in our family, she was ironically diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 28 and received breast cancer twice, by the age of 32. I found this ironic and fearful to not ony Avon consumers but, all product consumers who do not know what is in thier daily products. This is why I now work from home for a health and wellnes company providing products that are healthy, botanically based, inspired by nature, vegan certified and green committed. I help people look an feel better in a pure, safe, and natural way!

Posted by Mandy  on  08/26/2011  at  01:11 PM

Another really great, and more specific and practical site with scoring on recognized brands in the U.S, based on ingredient safety.  http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/special/sunscreens2008/brandranks.php

Posted by Mandy  on  08/26/2011  at  01:06 PM

It’s nice to see awareness is ramping up in the U.S. regarding cosmetics.  There are some well-known cosmetic companies that have reputations for selling quality safe cosmetics, but very often the formulas they use for what they sell here in the states are different from what they use for the same products that they sell in Europe where there is much more awareness about cosmetic products.  Things that would NEVER be allowed in food here are allowed in cosmetics - another example of legislation being behind technology.
For the ordinary woman working outside the home who might apply makeup, and then lipstick several times a day, the products she thinks are safe could be poisoning her and be a cause for minor health issues and later more chronic over time, all because of using cosmetics with unhealthy and toxic ingredients.  Remember the big commotion about knock-off perfumes and how it was discovered that some companies were even putting things like urine and extremely toxic chemicals into their products?  Some were unhealthy and some were extremely dangerous.
To educate yourself about ingredient lists regarding your cosmetics and be a healthier and more educated buyer, see this: http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/myths-on-cosmetics-safety/

Posted by Judith  on  07/29/2011  at  06:21 PM

Oh, no, no.  Could you possibly be more scare-mongering, and less scientific?  And on top of that, the proposed legislation does nothing to make anyone safer from anything.  The horrible things you suggest are in cosmetics aren’t; there is already the strong FDA set of rules, regulations and laws covering cosmetic safety (though enforcement could be stronger, if Congress had the money for the FDA); and you really should get some scientific, evidence-based information, not the smear tactics used by Skin Deep and the Environmental Working Group, who used to be a worthy group but now are making themselves a laughingstock with this.  At some point, their (and now, your) claims may reach the point of libel: false aspersions meant to cause harm.

Posted by Janelle Sorensen  on  07/28/2011  at  03:43 PM

The authors of the Forbes article wrote a letter in response to Avon’s and it is posted in full below:

July 28 2011

A letter to Tod Arbogast
Vice President, Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility, Avon Products, Inc.

In your letter to Meghan Casserly dated July 20, 2011 you pointed out two so-called inaccuracies in our recent paper in Environmental Justice and our article on Forbes.com. We wish to address the concerns raised in your letter and clarify the points made in our research.

To begin, you claim that we “appear to be referring to parabens” when we suggest that cosmetic products often contain hormone disrupting chemicals. Some type of parabens are known to disrupt hormone function, an effect that is linked to increased risk of breast cancer and reproductive toxicity, but they are just one type of hormone disrupting chemicals found in cosmetics. Others include phthalates, synthetic musks, and triclosan. We disagree with your suggestion that parabens have been extensively studied; we’d like to see more data on the effect of low dose exposures to parabens. There is, however, a substantial amount of research on the health effects of hormone disruptors in general, and given the breadth of research demonstrating negative effects of even very low doses, such as the amounts we’re exposed to from cosmetics and other everyday products, we support our previous claims that chemicals that cause cancer or have been linked to cancer have no place in consumer products. While we applaud the efforts to reduce the presence of toxic chemicals in Avon products, we maintain that continuing to build brand recognition through breast cancer cause-marketing while continuing to sell products that are not completely free of toxic chemicals is a harmful contradiction.

Your letter also takes issue with the fact that we “single out” Avon and the Love/Army of Women for not investing more research dollars into preventive research. We wish to point out that funding for breast cancer prevention and causation remains quite low across the board- it isn’t just Avon- with many philanthropic or governmental research dollars going to treatment and early detection. To clarify our point, we contend that prevention begins with understanding and illuminating the root causes of cancer and making efforts to reduce the occurrence of the disease. Early detection is not prevention- if you detect breast cancer, that means a woman already has the disease.

We are grateful for early detection and recognize that it saves many women’s lives, but it does not eliminate the painful reality that more and more women each year are being diagnosed with breast cancer. More research dollars must go to true prevention so that we may begin to answer important questions, including why the United States continues to have one of the highest rates of breast cancer in the industrialized world, and why women who move to the US from other countries “adopt” our breast cancer rates. While Avon’s support and financial contributions have increased the quantity of breast cancer research and may have contributed to important medical breakthroughs, a funding paradigm that is centered solely on treatment and care can never hope to reduce the prevalence of cancer. Racing for a cure is understandable, but understanding and reducing the occurrence of the disease would be revolutionary and should be a goal of any corporation whose public image is so inseparable from breast cancer.

If Avon, “The Company for Women,” truly wishes to continue their “commitment to do everything in its power to eradicate breast cancer” we would like to suggest that Avon publicly commit to removing carcinogens and hormone disruptors from all of its products and that the company must increase transparency in their fundraising and philanthropic operations. And we ask, what is Avon’s and the Love/Army of Women’s definition of “prevention?”

Our article articulates “pinkwashing” as the practice whereby companies profit from the sale of pink ribbon products while simultaneously selling products or services that contain (or utilize in manufacturing) chemicals linked to cancer, a practice that is far too common and which harms people and the environment and manipulates consumer emotions. We maintain this point.  It is our sincere hope that Avon and other companies steer clear of pinkwashing and that Avon use its considerable power and brand recognition to be a true leader in prevention, as well as in early detection and the search for the cure.

Sincerely,
Mia Davis and Amy Lubitow

Posted by Janelle Sorensen  on  07/28/2011  at  03:41 PM

Tod Arbogast, vice president, Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility for Avon Products, has written a letter in response to the Forbes.com post, and it is published in part below:

Avon Product Safety
Avon has been in business for 125 years, and the foundation of our success is our safe and effective products. In fact, we have an unparalleled track record for product safety. We are well aware of the rumors circulating that certain cosmetic ingredients cause cancer. In this day and age of the Internet, misinformation can spread rapidly and that’s why we feel compelled to respond when these types of claims surface. Although the “hormone disruptors” referred to in your article are not named, it appears that you are referring to parabens, a family of compounds used safely since the 1920s to help prevent dangerous fungal and bacterial contamination in a wide variety of consumer products, including food, drugs and cosmetics. 
•  First, the safety of parabens has been extensively studied by many scientific bodies including the World Health Organization, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Anvisa in Brazil and the EU Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety, which completed its latest safety assessment on parabens in December 2010.Not a single government-scientific body has determined that parabens are unsafe.
•  Second, despite repeated confirmation of the safety of parabens, nonetheless, Avon recognizes that some consumers prefer other options. That’s why we began eliminating parabens back in 2002 from some of our products where there are safe alternatives. Today, these parabens-free products include lip products, women’s body care, antiperspirants and deodorants, and children’s products.
•  Avon’s scientists are continually evaluating ingredient safety in partnership with regulatory, scientific and university bodies. If any ingredient is found to be unsafe, it is immediately removed from our products. Consumers can find product ingredients listed on product labels (strictly guided by law) and on avon.com.

Avon Foundation for Women
The article states that the Journal on Environmental Justice “singles out” the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer “for not donating more money to breast cancer prevention (instead of treatments and finding a cure).” The Journal’s assertion is absolutely false. The facts – which are publicly available on www.avonfoundation.org – show that research represents nearly 41% of all funds donated by the Foundation to the breast cancer cause since 2004, with research donations alone totaling almost $100 million. Nearly one quarter of the research total supports prevention research.

As part of its prevention focus, the Avon Foundation has and continues to support a significant amount of environmental research. Partnerships include the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). Beneficiaries include Zero Breast Cancer, Silent Spring Institute, and Communities for a Better Environment – all leading research programs that investigate the links between the environment and breast cancer. In fact, the Avon Foundation currently funds almost all of the environmental research proposals it receives that score high ratings from its independent Scientific Advisory Board (whose chairman is a former leader of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences).  The Foundation has reached out to the leading breast cancer advocacy groups asking them to suggest ways in which additional funding requests in this area might be generated.

The Avon Foundation’s commitment to do everything in its power to eradicate breast cancer is profound and sincere, but it is one warrior in the battle to combat and prevent breast cancer and it cannot do everything, nor fulfill any particular advocacy group’s agenda. Rather, it has chosen its focus areas carefully and strategically and will continually assess the research landscape to find unmet needs, identify the greatest opportunities for progress and determine where the best science is being conducted.

Avon Products Inc. is also profound and sincere in its commitment to protect the safety of our consumers. As the company for women serving 6.5 million Representatives and their 300 million customers in more than 100 countries, our corporate mission is to improve the lives of women globally and be a responsible corporate citizen.  We take this mission very seriously and we remain committed to making a difference where we can.

We thank you for your time and attention in this matter.

Sincerely,

Tod Arbogast
Vice President, Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility
Avon Products, Inc.

Posted by Irena  on  07/19/2011  at  10:05 PM

Before your readers make their own intelligent decisions, I would strongly suggest they also read this article. http://personalcaretruth.com/2011/07/support-or-oppose-we-continue-to-oppose-h-r-2359/

Posted by marcia  on  07/18/2011  at  06:59 PM

It’s about time.