My parents taught me anything was possible if I was willing to work hard to achieve my dreams. They sacrificed to make sure I had the best education available because they wanted me to succeed where they felt they had failed. Some call this the pursuit of The American Dream. When I decided to start a cosmetics business, I used that expensive education and did my homework. I studied the law to ensure that our company was in compliance with current cosmetics laws as defined by the FDA.
Now, a non-profit group is using alarmist tactics in a rush to enforce drastic changes to the current cosmetic laws. As a result, The Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 (H.R. 5786) was introduced this week by Democrat Representatives Scharkowsky (Illinois), Markey (Massachusetts) and Baldwin (Wisconsin). (This draft has not yet been voted on.)
This bill threatens not only MY American Dream, but the dreams of many small and micro-business owners across the United States. The draft bill proposes stifling fees to register our businesses as well as a requirement to test for minute trace contaminants in each and every product we manufacture for sale. Furthermore, this bill proposes to level the playing field by requiring all manufactures to disclose private information to the FDA including (but not limited to) the following:
- gross receipt of sales
- names as well as addresses of any and all suppliers of ingredients
- "Trade Secrets" or recipes/formulations
Smell No Evil, Ltd and all of its subsidiaries are in favor of safe cosmetics. This legislation is not only far over-reaching, it does not protect consumers as written. We urge you to take the time to READ the bill for yourselves. Educate yourselves on the implications this bill has, not only for your business but for the consumers of the products you create.
Smell No Evil, Ltd. opposes the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 on the following grounds:
- It is poorly written and confusing.
- It creates a financial burden on small business with no exemptions.
- It over regulates an already safe industry.
- It homogenizes the industry by stifling creativity
- It creates further job loss and loss of local revenue in already tough economic times.
We refuse to allow alarmists and scaremongers to turn our personal American Dream into a nightmare without a fight. Won't you read the bill and make your own determination regarding its fate? If you agree, as we do, that it is far-overreaching and dangerous to the cause of Safe Cosmetics please sign the following petition to oppose the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010.
Allison B. Kontur, President
Smell No Evil, Ltd.
www.BathBodySupply.com
www.SmellNoEvil.net
10 comments:
I am with you in opposing this bill Hopie Robinson
I agree with you in oppsing this legislation for many reasons including the disclosure of proprietory information, thereby as you say "stifling creatiity". Also, having every nanoingredient tested will be aterrible financial burden on small businesses. However, there is no mention of how much the fees will be and businesses that gross less than $1 million will be exempt from fees, just not the registration, testing and labeling. Prices will have to go up.
Thank you!
The fees are "to be determined" and based on a sliding scale for businesses with over $1,000,000 in sales. The exemption is for the registration fee only. The proposed registration fee in the previous draft legislation was $2,000.
Testing is expected to run $8,000 per product per fragrance to be in compliance under the new legislation. At that cost, the exemption won't make a difference. We stock over 100 different fragrances meaning we would be looking at fees of $800,000 to test each base in each fragrance as required under this legislation.
Feel free to refer to this article which shows the breakdown of the proposed testing and the associated fees here: http://personalcaretruth.com/2010/06/the-real-cost-of-unnecessary-pre-market-test-proposed-by-skin-deep-the-campaign-for-safe-cosmetics/
Thanks Allison for a really insightful post. You made some really important points about the disclosure of proprietary information that would become public information. It's important for business owners in all sectors to take note of this and join us in opposing the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010. This would be a terrible precedent that would potentially have a negative impact on all industries.
Thanks also for pointing out that it's the consumer who will ultimately end up paying the price for this excessive regulation of an industry with an exemplary safety record. Particularly in our current economic climate, I can't imagine anyone wanting to pay extra for the cosmetics and toiletries we're safely enjoying now.
Would it be possible to post this on my blog with credit and a link? I can never say what you did as well and I'm a writer. Nancy@liedel.org
Nancy, certainly you may as long as you link back and give proper credit. Please let me know where it will be posted!
Great photo for this post - perfect.
Thanks Allison for a really insightful post. You made some really important points about the disclosure of proprietary information that would become public information. It's important for business owners in all sectors to take note of this and join us in opposing the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010. This would be a terrible precedent that would potentially have a negative impact on all industries.
Thanks also for pointing out that it's the consumer who will ultimately end up paying the price for this excessive regulation of an industry with an exemplary safety record. Particularly in our current economic climate, I can't imagine anyone wanting to pay extra for the cosmetics and toiletries we're safely enjoying now.
Thanks Allison for a really insightful post. You made some really important points about the disclosure of proprietary information that would become public information. It's important for business owners in all sectors to take note of this and join us in opposing the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010. This would be a terrible precedent that would potentially have a negative impact on all industries.
Thanks also for pointing out that it's the consumer who will ultimately end up paying the price for this excessive regulation of an industry with an exemplary safety record. Particularly in our current economic climate, I can't imagine anyone wanting to pay extra for the cosmetics and toiletries we're safely enjoying now.
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