American Cancer Society Silent on California Safe Cosmetics Act

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With the passage of the California Safe Cosmetics Act of 2005, cosmetics companies will have to tell California state health officials about the ingredients in their products that might cause cancer. It would seem that the American Cancer Society would be a natural supporter of this kind of legislation, but grassroots cancer-prevention organizers found this not to be the case. "The bill’s proponents said that one of the new law’s biggest obstacles was the silence of the ACS, the most powerful cancer-research and cancer-lobbying organization in the world. The ACS is now the second-largest charity in the world, with a net worth of over $1 billion and an average $1 billion in annual revenue," journalist Mary Ann Swissler writes. ACS denies its silence on the cosmetics bill was due to industry influence. Nonetheless, the bill's "chief opponent, the Cosmetics, Toiletries and Fragrances Association (CTFA) gives $10 million annually to ACS’s 'Look Good, Feel Better' makeup program for cancer patients," Swissler reports.