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BOSTON--At
Avon Corporation’s annual meeting in New York on May 5, shareholders
asked the company to reformulate cosmetics products sold in the United
States and other world markets to meet tougher European standards.
Other major cosmetics companies, including
Estee Lauder and L’Oreal, have already agreed to this step. However,
Avon shareholders voted 95 percent to 5 percent against the
resolution. The resolution, filed by Domini Social Investments,
requested that the company reformulate, “in a reasonable time frame,
all its products worldwide to be free of chemicals banned by the
European Directive.”
The resolution outlined concern by consumer
groups that while cosmetics companies are required to meet European
standards that ban approximately 1,200 ingredients from cosmetics sold
in 25 European countries, products sold in markets outside of Europe
continue to contain many of these potentially harmful chemicals. The
change in European formulations is being driven by the European Union
Directive 2003/15/EC, which bans the sale of cosmetics containing
ingredients that are known or suspected of causing cancer, genetic
mutations or birth defects.
Two coalitions of women’s health
organizations supported the resolution and, as shareholders, questioned
the Company during the meeting on its lack of response to the European
cosmetics directive. Member groups from the Campaign for Safe
Cosmetics and the Follow the Money Alliance have attempted to establish
a dialog with Avon executives for several years but Avon has yet to
respond to these requests.
“We want Avon to live up to their self promotion as
‘the company for women’ and become as serious about women’s health as
they are about their bottom line,” said Deborah Forter of the
Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition, a member of the Campaign for
Safe Cosmetics. “Despite their stated concern about women’s health,
their hypocrisy about product safety is disappointing.”
Forter said that five percent of Avon
shareholders won a victory by garnering enough votes to see the
resolution introduced again next year.
# # #
The Campaign for Safe Cosmeticsis
a coalition of public health, educational, religious, labor, women’s,
environmental and consumer groups. The goal of the Campaign is to
protect the health of consumers and workers by requiring the health and
beauty industry to phase out the use of chemicals linked to cancer,
birth defects and other health problems and replace them with safer
alternatives.
Follow the Money: An Alliance for Accountability in Breast Cancer advocates
for transparency and accountability in the raising and distribution of breast cancer funds.
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