An Ugly Fight over Cosmetics Safety

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"The increasing number of attacks by lobby groups on the US cosmetics and personal care industry means that it is time to fight back," according to CosmeticsDesign.com. The main industry group, the Cosmetic, Toiletry, and Fragrance Association (CTFA), will "use the internet ... as a tool to spread information that is based upon 'reliable scientific research.'" CTFA's planned PR offensive was reported on last year by the Center for Media and Democracy's Diane Farsetta. The article detailed a focus group conducted by Luntz Research, which asked participants how they would research cosmetics safety and who they would trust, and had them fill out worksheets "describing a website with information on cosmetics ingredients, to be launched in 2007." CTFA's John Bailey told CosmeticsDesign.com that the environmental and public health groups that have raised concerns about cosmetics "do a grave disservice to consumers by using inflammatory and alarmist rhetoric to create scientifically unsubstantiated health scares."