Toxic Chemicals

Right to know what's in your products

To bring about change, we must harness consumer buying power and give people tools to shop smarter and move markets.

EWG’s 2010 sunscreen guide warned that data from an unpublished federal study showed that retinyl palmitate, a form of vitamin A found in two-fifths of U.S. sunscreens, could accelerate development of skin tumors.  In January 2011, a key independent science advisory panel of the National Institutes of Health unanimously confirmed EWG’s analysis.

The online environmental news site Treehugger recognized EWG’s cosmetics database, Skin Deep, as the web’s “Best Health/Beauty Information Site.” In July, culminating a decade-long campaign by EWG and like-minded environmental health groups, Congress introduced the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010
 
EWG's groundbreaking January 2010 report, “Off the Books,” documented that a loophole in the toxics control law has permitted industry to keep secret more than 17,000 chemicals. The report prompted a front-page story in the Washington Post and spurred EPA to begin making reforms to advance transparency.

The Obama administration made a major public commitment to reform the nation's outdated toxics chemicals law.  In 2010,  Ken Cook testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and House Energy and Commerce Committee on toxics policy and reform. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and EWG leaders met to discuss the administration's strategy.   Cook was featured in a panel discussion with Dr. Sanjay Gupta on CNN’s “Toxic America.”

Major baby bottle manufacturers switched to non-BPA plastic in 2010. Lawmakers in Minnesota, Connecticut, Maryland, Washington state, Suffolk County, N.Y., and Chicago voted to ban BPA in food packaging for babies and young children. A California Assembly fell just short of 41 votes needed for passage of a similar ban.

EWG tests found that 40 percent of store receipts had high levels of BPA. This report, featured on NPR, The Diane Rehm Show and the Washington Post, helped spur industry action to remove BPA from paper receipts.   

The City of San Francisco approved the first ever citywide ordinance requiring disclosure of cell phone radiation values at the point-of-sale, in a large part due to EWG’s scientific review. EWG’s updated 2010 cell phone radiation guide, listing emissions of popular new smart phones, kept a spotlight on the issue.

Under pressure from EWG and other advocates, three chemical companies forged an agreement with EPA to end production, importation and use of decabromodiphenyl ether (Deca), a neurotoxic chemical and possible carcinogen, by the end of 2013.  Deca, commonly added to consumer electronics, furniture, textiles and plastic shipping pallets, is biopersistent and presents particular dangers to children.