Janet Nudelman, BCPP Director of Program & Policy and Director of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics

California bill SB 574 would have been the first bill in the world to force companies to publicly disclose the fragrance and flavor chemicals in their beauty and personal care products. Though it did not pass in 2019, a new federal bill, the Safe Cosmetics and Personal Care Act of 2019 introduced by Rep. Jan Schakowsky, would require full fragrance and flavor ingredient disclosure on a company’s website and disclosure of a product’s toxic fragrance and flavor ingredients on the product label. One bill after another, we’re stopping at nothing to move the needle toward cosmetics safety, transparency, and full ingredient disclosure.

In the spring of 2019, BCPP partnered with Black Women for Wellness and Women’s Voices for the Earth in cosponsoring the California Cosmetic Fragrance and Flavor Ingredient Right to Know Act (SB 574 – Leyva). Our team:

• Testified at 4 policy committee hearings in the Senate and Assembly alongside the bill author Senator Leyva;
• Took over 30 amendments to the bill which neutralized the industry opposition;
• And brought 15 lobby teams of hair stylists, breast cancer survivors, clean beauty companies and NGOs to meet with 71 legislative offices to discuss this important bill.

We did everything we could. Still, at the eleventh hour, the bill was killed quietly, held on the Assembly Appropriations Committee suspense file. Given the broad-based support for the bill, NO public industry opposition, and NO price tag, we expected it to sail through the Appropriations Committee. The bill’s surprise end came as a huge shock.

Despite this setback, we are proud of the amazing coalition of partners who joined together with us in support of safe cosmetics, the legislators we educated on toxic chemicals and women’s health, and how far we advanced this bill. With so much good work accomplished this year, we remain committed and plan to sponsor a new California fragrance disclosure bill next year. It’s not unusual for bills to take a few years to pass in California, given that bills enacted will typically impact all 50 states.

On the bright side, while this California bill waits, we are also working to pass a meaningful, health protective federal cosmetic safety bill, the Safe Cosmetics and Personal Care Act of 2019 (Schakowsky). The two bills complement each other nicely, given that the Schakowsky bill gives consumers fragrance information at the point of purchase, while the California bill aggregates this information in one publicly accessible database for consumers. Of course, the federal cosmetics bill also contains other great provisions that will make cosmetics safer, like immediately banning 20 known toxic chemicals from cosmetics.

We believe that change occurs when the public is educated and engaged, when companies adopt safe use and chemical disclosure policies, and when state and federal governments enact laws that protect everyone from chemicals linked to breast cancer and other diseases. Which is why we’ll continue to advocate for full fragrance ingredient disclosure through public education, corporate accountability campaigns, and state and federal advocacy.

Thank you to all our supporters who worked so hard on SB 574. We are so proud of the work we accomplished this year and the amazing coalition we built. We look forward to continuing this important work next year.