We, the undersigned, are community groups based in Westchester County, NY and we are writing to urge you to prioritize and pass the Beauty Justice Act (S.4265/A.6969). This bill would ban the sale of cosmetics and personal care products that contain intentionally added dangerous substances including heavy metals like lead, arsenic, and mercury, PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), phthalates, formaldehyde, asbestos, benzene, and other harmful chemicals known to cause adverse health effects including infertility and cancer.
This legislation is critical to support healthier and more resilient New York communities like ours. People of color are disproportionately exposed to more harmful chemicals in their daily personal care products compared to white consumers because of their greater use of these products from targeted marketing and systemic issues. The chemicals identified for restriction in this bill were selected based on research that identified many of them as disproportionately impacting Black women (McKelvey et al., 2011; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021; (Boyle et al., 2021).
Consumers remain largely unaware that toxic chemicals that can be associated with severe conditions like infertility and cancer are in products on the shelves of many stores and online, and they shouldn’t have to be chemical experts to buy safe personal care and cosmetic products. The Beauty Justice Act (S.4265/A.6969) would ban harmful chemicals from the majority of personal care and cosmetics products sold in New York State, including braiding hair and relaxers. This bill would significantly reduce the adverse health impacts of exposure to these toxic chemicals through products specifically targeting women.
As community groups representing Westchester County, and as advocates for the health and wellbeing of consumers, we urge you to protect New Yorkers from harmful toxic chemicals by passing common sense legislation and voting to protect people in your community.
Sincerely,
Clean Beauty for Black Girls Co.
Clean + Healthy
Consumer Reports
Franciscan Action Network
Girls Inc. of Westchester County
International I Love Braids Day
Just Us Women Productions, LLC
Know Your Hairitage
Living Well Black
NAACP – New York State Conference
Natural Hairstyle and Braid Coalition
Sister to Sister International, Inc.
Women United of Westchester Social Club, Inc.
WE ACT for Environmental Justice
Westchester Women’s Agenda