Carol Secter

The “Prevent Cancer Now” Conference : It’s About Prevention, It’s About Time (held at the University of Ottawa, May 24th through 27th ) was a wonderful opportunity for BCAMers to make connections with people from other parts of the country. Much of the focus at this conference was on what chemical policy reform should look like and how to achieve it.

Removing dangerous chemicals from cosmetics and personal care products continues to be an important part of chemical policy reform. BCAM has, for the last year, put a great deal of energy into its Safe Cosmetics Campaign as a way to bring attention to the fact that, despite new labelling laws, potentially toxic ingredients are still allowed in make-up and personal care products. Until the time of the conference, our efforts to persuade individuals or groups from outside of Quebec to join with us – as, for instance, in our protest of November 16th – were largely unsuccessful.

However, at the conference in Ottawa, a dozen people met over lunch, and the Safe Cosmetics Campaign Canada was born. There were women from Montreal, Halifax, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Vancouver and Victoria. Although BCAM members make up a large proportion of the group, the members from the other provinces were confident they would be able to recruit others.

Our action of last May 16th (see report on page 5) was endorsed by groups in Montreal, and we received media coverage. The result is that BCAM is now known to the press. In future, when we send out a press release announcing that women will be downtown in seven Canadian cities demanding that cosmetic and personal care product labels be easy to understand, we are more likely to receive some national coverage.

For us, the next important step after hazard-based labelling will be to stress the need to remove ingredients that are known to be possible or probable carcinogens, mutagens or reproductive toxins. Currently, the cosmetics manufacturers can justify inclusion of such ingredients by claiming, correctly, that they are complying with Health Canada regulations. It is our contention, based on the precautionary principle that, since we don’t know the effects of low-dose, multiple exposures to these ingredients, they should be removed from cosmetics or, at the very least, labelled in such a way as to enable the consumer to make an informed choice.

Vancouver cancer prevention advocate, Kirsten Anderson, has agreed to chair the Canadian Campaign. She has been in contact with Janet Nudelman from the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics to coordinate efforts and have access to their experience and information.

Mark November 16th in your calendars: This will be the time to once again remind the public – and Health Canada – that we won’t accept toxins in the products we use daily.
Other highlights of the conference follow.