Bazillions of advertising dollars are spent every year to persuade American women to buy countless moisturizers, wrinkle creams, foundations, lipsticks, bronzers, etc.  We slather our bodies in cosmetics, usually without much thought as to their ingredients.  After all, if they are on sale in the United States, they must be safe, right? 

Wrong.

From our nail polish to our colognes, cosmetics in the U.S. contain chemicals that are harmful or potentially harmful to you, your children, and your unborn children.  To put it in perspective, according to the documentary America the Beautiful, the European Union has banned 450 chemicals for use in cosmetics.  How many has the FDA banned?

Six.

And the FDA doesn't even have the authority to test cosmetics for safety before they hit your drugstore's shelves.  This includes products like baby shampoo, which has been shown to contain carcinogens.  Yep, even good ol' Johnson & Johnson's. 

Does the European Union care more about its women and children than the United States government?  It certainly seems that way.

But surely you can just avoid hazardous chemicals like formaldehyde and phthalates (toxic to the bodily systems and fetuses) by looking at an ingredients label?

Think again.

Cosmetics such as perfumes don't have to list all their ingredients because they can be considered "trade secrets."  Meaning you don't know what you are putting on your skin and inhaling every time you spritz that bottle.

So who's more important, cosmetic companies or the citizens of this country?  It's time we demand that our government stops putting the desires of corporations over the safety of the citizenry, especially the safety of our children.