Nexus - 0202 - New Times Magazine-pages

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BEWARE A consumers guide to the labelling of natural hair care products n Australia, about 300 different shampoos compete on the market for their slice of a retail cake worth approximately $300 million per annum. Competition is strong and as a result advertising is often misleading. To determine which shampoo will satisfy your environmental and cosmetic needs is becoming more dif fi- cult, especially now the big companies are happy to bla- tantly mislead the more uninformed ‘green consumer’. Let’s look a little closer at some of the issues you should be aware of when choosing the best product for your hair. —_——: The rise of consumer awareness in recent years about the effects of our way of life on the health of the planet has prompted many big businesses to cash in on the ‘natural’ bandwagon; not least in the area of personal care products. However, it is clear that many of these so-called ‘natural’ and ‘herbal’ products contain only minimal and quite inef- fectual amounts of these featured ingredients. Products labelled as ‘herbal’ are often particularly mis- leading. Certain active components of herbs are commonly included as synthetic chemical equivalents. For example, allantoin, one of the active components of the herb com- frey, is produced synthetically from a base of cows urine! The term ‘organic’ can also be very deceptive. Originally, ‘organic’ meant ‘derived from living organisms (plant or animal)’. In its modern scientific usage the term also applies to virtually all materials containing carbon, including petrochemicals and other totally man-made sub- stances the like of which are not found in nature. In the area of personal care products, the term ‘natural’ is used broadly in relation to those products containing a percentage of plant or animal derived ingredients. Similarly, the same list endorses scores of personal care products as being free from animal ingredients, with the exceptions of beeswax, honey, lanolin and in some cases stearic acid. That stearic acid is found in context with beeswax, honey and lanolin is bewildering indeed. The first three substances are produced in the animal kingdom with- out requiring the sacrifice of the animal or insect. Stearic acid and its derivatives are used in most skin and hair care preparations. About 99% of the stearic acid derivatives used in the cosmetics industry are made from animal fats, cheap by-products of the meat industry. A more animal ingredient is scarcely possible. Other commonly used animal ingredients used in hair care products include collagen, keratin and various deriva- tives of hydrolysed animal protein. Production of some of these materials involves cruelty to animals. High quality Continued on page 35 Animal testing, nowadays mostly carried out by the research sections of large companies and universities, is not necessary when developing new skin and hair care for- mulations. Volumes of scientific information are available on most ingredients used in modern cosmeticology, includ- ing much data originally compiled from results of animal experimentation. In view of this fact, some countries do not allow the use of the claim ‘not tested on animals’ on personal care prod- ucts. Virtually every ingredient suitable for inclusion in these products has at some time been subject to animal test- ing. The list circulated by animal welfare groups as a con- sumer guide for shopping, endorses scores of products which in Australia are allowed to display the words ‘NOT TESTED ON ANIMALS’. One wonders if they know what that actually means. NEXUS - 14 by Will Evans B.Sc (Chem) “NATURAL” - WHAT DOES IT MEAN ANIMAL INGREDIENTS ANIMAL TESTING YEAR BOOK - FEBRUARY 1991