Know Better, Do Better
What kind of feelings does looking at these vintage ads bring on? For me it is shock that once upon a time we believed that smoking wasn’t harmful to our health. Physicians had a cigarette of choice and it was ok for pregnant mothers to smoke. It amazes me that it used to be allowed to smoke in hospitals and in airplanes.It came down to lack of research and not fully understanding
the effects. Over time more research was done and we began to understand the overall negative effects that tobacco has on our health. This created change in the recommendations and warnings. Today you will never hear a physician recommending a brand of cigarette.When it comes to our personal care products I think of where we are today with the ingredients in many of our products as a similar place to where we were with tobacco in the 50’s. We simply do not have all the research that we need to fully understand how many of the chemicals that are used in our products have on our long-term health.Since the 1950’s over 80,000 chemicals have come into the marketplace. In the cosmetics industry 80% of the chemicals used have never been tested for safety. It’s not that all chemicals are bad, but we do not have the information necessary to fully understand their health impact. We need more studies done to better understand and guide us in formulating products. As the saying goes, we can only do better when we know better.March 4th is Beautycounter’s 4 year anniversary and it is a time that we give an extra push to an already important part of our better beauty movement, requests for more health protective laws as it pertains to our personal care products. This is an area that is so important to me. Similar to how crazy it seems that physicians were recommending certain brands of cigarettes, I want my children to look back at today and think how crazy it was that we had to read labels for harmful ingredients. I know that what I am doing today is making a difference and that I’m fighting for something that will benefit our health.Stay tuned for what is happening for Beautycounter’s March 4th anniversary and how you can participate!