Congress targets hair products with cancer-causing ingredients marketed to Black women

NBC News

5 days ago

Federal lawmakers on Wednesday introduced four bills aimed at banning or regulating dangerous chemicals in hair and beauty products largely marketed toward Black women.
The four proposals in the Safe Beauty Bill Package would remove ingredients that are known to cause cancer from beauty and personal care hair products, thus protecting women of color and salon workers who are at a high risk of exposure to these ingredients, lawmakers said.
Lawmakers also say there's mounting scientific evidence linking harmful beauty ingredients to serious health conditions such as breast cancer, reproductive harm, early puberty and learning disabilities.
Ingredients that could cause cancer were found in 10 synthetic hair products used in braids, extensions and other hairstyles popular with Black women, according to a Consumer Reports study released in March. Researchers also found varying amounts of lead, which can cause serious health and developmental problems, in most synthetic hair samples they evaluated.
Advocates of the bill say the legislation would set standards for ingredient transparency and safety in hair products.
'These bills recognize that everyone deserves protection from unsafe cosmetic exposures regardless of where they live, shop or work,' Janet Nudelman, director of Program and Policy at Breast Cancer Prevention Partners and their Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, said in a statement on Thursday.
The bill package includes the Toxic-Free Beauty Act, which bans two classes of chemicals and 18 highly hazardous chemicals found in hair products including lead, mercury, formaldehyde, asbestos, phthalates and parabens which have been linked to cancer, brain damage and reproductive harm.
The Food and Drug Administration announced it would decide by April 2024 whether chemical hair straightening products sold in the U.S. would be banned from using formaldehyde or ingredients that can release formaldehyde when heated. The proposal, however, has been in limbo since 2024 and was further held up after President Donald Trump signed an executive order pausing all federal regulations.
The package also includes the Cosmetic Safety Protections for Communities of Color & Salon Workers Act, which targets the disproportionate exposure to toxic chemicals in cosmetic products marketed to salon workers and women of color, especially Black women.
Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill, authored all four bills and said consumers deserve accountability when it comes to hair ingredients.
'It's time to close the loopholes that allow toxic chemicals in the products we use on our bodies every day,' she said in a statement. 'This legislation delivers exactly that.'
Three years ago, Congress adopted the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulations Act of 2022, a sweeping cosmetic safety law that gave the FDA authority over hair products but did little to change the actual safety of the ingredients in beauty and personal care products, lawmakers said.
Some states have already addressed ingredient safety in their laws.
Since 2023, Vermont banned 17 chemicals and two classes from cosmetic products; California banned 25 chemicals; and Washington and Oregon banned 13 chemicals and three classes of chemicals, lawmakers said.