1. Toxics testing
Think the government’s screening your beauty products before they make it to market? Think again. Health Canada doesn’t do any pre-testing of products for safety, nor does it require companies to prove their products are safe before they go in stores. Manufacturers just have to notify HC of their ingredients 10 days after they go to market. That’s it. HC also keeps very infrequent tabs once products are on shelves, like whether products contain banned or restricted ingredients, heavy metals or microbial contaminants. Nor is the department checking to see whether makers are telling the truth about their contents – an important data gap previously flagged by studies that found a number of major brands hiding unlisted ingredients in sunscreens, nail polishes and fragrances.
2. Hidden cancer-and asthma-linked ingredients
If you dig fruity-fresh or floral-scented soaps, sprays and creams, hold your breath. The report notes that “many chemicals commonly found in fragrance can trigger allergies and asthma and have been linked to cancer,” but there’s no way for consumers to know what’s in their products, since industry isn’t forced to reveal the ingredients used in scents. HC remains in the dark, and, the report notes, “cannot assure consumers that these products comply with the Food And Drugs Act and are safe.” A few years back, HC proposed mandating the tagging of 26 known fragrance allergens on ingredients lists, the way the EU has since 2003. Alas, that proposal seems to have vanished into thin air. HC now promises to at least test products that use terms like “fragrance,” “parfum,” “aroma” or “flavour” to determine if they contain banned or restricted substances. It will also “encourage” brands to divulge scent ingredients to the feds, but don’t expect mandatory fragrance ingredient disclosure on bottles.
3. Recall renege: tainted cosmetics on store shelves
After a wave of toy and other recalls over the last decade, the feds promised to beef up product safety, and in 2011 HC was given extra powers to order recalls, levy penalties and set up mandatory “incident reporting” for manufacturers, importers and retailers on all sorts of consumer goods. Weirdly, that didn’t extend to “cosmetics” (the official term for all products used to clean or enhance skin, hair, teeth and scent). So HC has no power to demand recalls of, say, moisturizer or shampoo, and companies aren’t obliged to let the feds know when consumers have complained about adverse reactions to their products or any other health and safety-related incidents. The report also found that since HC has been so damn slow at taking action when it does find out products are tainted with dodgy substances, Canadians can’t be sure consumer products with prohibited ingredients have been taken off shelves.
4. Mystery online purchases
With more than three-quarters of Canadians now shopping online, Canada’s environmental commish is concerned Health Canada “has few controls to address or prevent dangers associated with imported products shipped directly to consumers.” HC is reportedly in the early stages of a collaborative international project to check the availability of illegal products via online sellers, but the commissioner’s report says HC needs to do more to assess the scope of risks posed by online shopping.
5. Killer knockoffs and hazardous counterfeits
Health Canada says it’s working with federal partners to address risks to human health or safety caused by counterfeit products, but maintains it isn’t a high-risk area. Canada’s environmental commish argues that “a low number of incident reports on its own is not sufficient evidence to conclude that the issue poses low risk.” A 2007 House of Commons committee fingered counterfeit products as a serious health risk. (Last year, British police warned the public that they’d found counterfeit perfume containing cyanide and human urine, and knockoff makeup with high levels of arsenic, mercury and lead). The report calls on Health Canada to get serious about assessing the dangers posed by counterfeit cosmetics and consumer goods.
ecoholic@nowtoronto.com | @ecoholicnation
