American Cancer Society, Stop Giving Carcinogenic Cosmetics to Women With Cancer

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/33442-american-cancer-society-stop-giving-carcinogenic-cosmetics-to-women-with-cancer
Great article for everybody to consider.

The way the Look Good Feel Better program works is that member companies of the Personal Care Products Council, like Estee Lauder, Smashbox and Mary Kay, donate cosmetic products for the kits given to cancer patients like me. The American Cancer Society administers the program nationwide. Cosmetologists donate their time to run the workshops.

Quite by accident, while researching a safe sunscreen to wear during chemo, I discovered a cosmetics database that independently evaluates over 60,000 products for safety, including cancer risk. I decided to check out the products I had been given at the Look Good Feel Better class. I discovered that a majority of the products contained chemicals linked to cancer. And if that's not bad enough, some even included chemicals that could interrupt the effectiveness of Tamoxifen - an oral cancer drug I take today and will take for years.

The American Cancer Society has issued a seemingly cynical response to the campaign, stating that they believe the "benefits of Look Good Feel Better outweigh the minimal risks."

This comes right out of the cosmetics companies' playbook. They claim that exposure to chemicals linked to increased cancer risk at low doses, like those found in these makeup kits, is harmless. But a growing body of scientific evidence points to the role of carcinogens and hormone disrupting chemicals - even in low doses - in increasing women's risk of cancer and recurrence. And a new study recently found that a group of common chemicals used in cosmetics can stimulate breast cancer even more than previously thought. These chemicals are absorbed through the skin and mimic the hormone estrogen, which causes cells to multiply and increases breast cancer risk.