The Story of Cosmetics (2010)

This is the story about the world obsessed with stuffs

It's a story about systems and crisis

We're trashing the planet, we're trashing each other

and we're not even having fun

The good thing is that when we start to understand the system

we start to see lots of places to step in and turn these problems into solutions

Can I tell you: I love my Pantene proV

of the personal soap products that I use everyday

the one I can't live without

It said it gives my hair the ultimate cool shine

how does it do that?

I was wondering that when I was lattering my hair one day

So I read the ingredients right here

What is this stuff?

I took this list to some scientists who know how to read it

Turn out my Pantene could have the potential link to cancer

and lots of my other products in my bathroom

from suncream to lipstick and even baby shampoo

also contain chemical ? cancer

or other problems like learning disability, asthma or even damaged sperms

Like most parent, I try to keep my family safe

but now I find out my bathroom is a minefield of toxin

What are we supposed to do?

To find out the answer, we have to go back to the key feature

of our material economy

Toxic in, toxic out

If at the factory, you put the toxic chemical into a product like baby shampoo

you're gonna wind up with toxic baby shampoo

and toxic in workers, community, and, ta-ha, baby

So let's take a closer look at this toxic outrage that seems ruin our lives everyday

In the bathroom,

the average woman in the US uses 12 personal care products daily

the average man about 6

Each product contain a dozen or more chemicals

Less than 20% of chemicals in cosmetic has been assessed by the industry safety panel

So we just don't know what they do to us when we use them

Would you find an airline that only inspect 20% of its planes?

Of course not all of the chemicals are dangerous

but we know that many are.

Some are Carcinogens. That means that they can cause cancers.

Others are neurotoxins and reproductive toxins

proven to mess up brain development and reproduction in animals.

Wait a minute!

We're animal too!

It's like a giant experiment

We're using all these mystery chemicals and just waiting to see what happens.

One thing we do know is that they're getting inside us.

I had my body toxicity level tested

and I'm loaded with things like Mercury, Flame Retardants, Triclosan and Lead

We all are

Even babies being pre-polluted

Now I know we can't live in a lead-free world

but we have to put it on a lipstick?

I don't know

Maybe it's my fault

maybe I've just bought the wrong thing

At the store, the choices seem endless

I can get lipsticks in 49 shades

or shampoos for hair.... dry

but what about the choices that really matter?

like the choice for my products that are safe

It turns out the important decision just don't happen when I choose the products off the shelf.

They happen with companies and governments decide which products to go on the shelf.

So who are these companies?

This is Procter and Gamble

They are the one offering me herbal essenses

the number 2 shampoo in the country

It contains toxic petrol chemicals made from oil

Since when is the oil an herb?

On cosmetic label, words like "herbal", "natural" or even "organic" have no legal definitions.

That means that anybody can put anything on a bottle and call it "natural".

And they do

I mean can you imagine a top seller called Petro essenses? Gross!

What's even nastier is the hair relaxer marketed for 5 year olds.

and skin whitening creams

These are super toxic

both in the ingredients and in the message they send about what beauty is

Oh, here's Estee Lauder offering me a chance to find a cure for breast cancer

That's nice! But wait, they're also using the chemicals link to cancers

Don't you think the best way for Estee Lauder to fight cancers

to stop using those chemicals in the first place?

So really, I get to choose between a meaningless claim on a bottle

but these guys get the real choice about what go into those bottles

And that happens back here

at the factory with the formulated

Why does the maker of these products use all these toxic?

Are they try to poisoning us?

No. They're just working from a 1950's mindset

when people were totally wrapped up in better living through chemistry.

In the hostile excitement, they forgot to worry about human health's impact

That was years ago and they're still using the same old toxic chemicals

Today, big cosmetic companies say that those are poison in the products are small enough to be harmless

Yeah maybe for using once a year

I guess they never get out and see that their products are being used in combine with other products everyday

A little toxic doze into your arms, a little more in your hair, on your lips

And workers in nail and hair salons get those all day long

So the industry is used to doing thing this way

And they can

Because even now the scientists have linked the chemicals we're using to all sort of problems

there are no law to get rid of them

You