Pointing to a link between personal-care products and reproductive health issues in Black and Latino women, a congress member from Ohio has introduced a bill that would fund research to help make those products safer.
“All women deserve products that are safe — period,” Rep. Shontel Brown, an Ohio Democrat, said in a statement announcing the Health & Endocrine Research on Personal Care Products for Women, or HER Act, on June 5.
The proposal, she said, calls for investigating the use of “endocrine-disrupting” chemicals in beauty and hygiene products marketed to women of color.
Hazardous Ingredients
Besides promoting consumer safety, the bill “bolsters public health efforts, and addresses serious racial disparities that are making too many Black and Hispanic women sick,” she said. “There is a clear nexus between unsafe products that are disproportionately used by Black and Hispanic women and the higher incidence of reproductive health issues that we experience.”
Decades of research has found that personal care products marketed to Black women have disproportionately higher health risks because they tend to contain more potentially harmful ingredients than products geared towards white women. There’s also considerable research into the connection between hair-straightening products Black women use and incidences of uterine cancer.
The HER Act would create a new federal grant program to research personal care products that contain endocrine-disrupting chemicals, which can interfere with the body’s endocrine system. Scientists believe the substances can interrupt puberty in girls, and have linked them to uterine fibroids, infertility, and other reproductive health conditions.
Prioritizing Women’s Health
Laura Vandenberg, a spokesperson for the nonprofit Endocrine Society, applauded Brown’s bill, noting it can improve women’s health in several areas.
“We know millions of women are exposed to endocrine-disrupting chemicals in personal care products,” she said in a statement. “These chemicals make us more susceptible to reproductive disorders, cancer, diabetes, obesity, heart disease and other serious health conditions.”
The bill, Vandenberg said, “would raise awareness of research into these chemicals and help consumers understand which products are safe to use.”
Dr. Eileen Barrett, president of the American Medical Women’s Association, concurred. The HER Act, she says, “would prioritize essential research into the impact of endocrine-disrupting chemicals on women’s reproductive health.”
The HER Act would create a new federal grant program to research personal care products that contain endocrine-disrupting chemicals.
A two-term congress member representing a portion of Cleveland, Brown is part of an informal caucus leading the charge for the Food and Drug Administration to ban hair relaxers and chemical straighteners that contain formaldehyde.
Little Oversight or Protection
In April, Brown, along with fellow Democratic Reps. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Nydia Velázquez of New York, sent a letter to the FDA demanding answers for the delay first called for in 2023.
“Too many people in Washington do not realize or do not care that most women use dozens of personal care products a day – and that these products come with very little oversight or consumer protection,” said Brown.
“The HER Act jumpstarts research and public awareness efforts that are sorely needed and I will continue to make sure that Black, Hispanic, and all women are heard from,” Rep. Brown added.
