ColumnThere may be no greater consumer concern than what products we use on our children—particularly when they’re brand new. But trusting brands can be a challenge. They all seem to tell us they’re the best; that they completely understand us, honestly. Do they? This month, Behind the Label takes a look at Jessica Alba’s The Honest Company products for babies and children. How safe and healthy are they?

Actress and mom Jessica Alba launched the Honest Company in 2012 after starting a family. “When I became a mom, I finally became the person I am, that I always should have been,” she says on the company’s website. “It’s the most satisfying job in the world. But, it can also be overwhelming and confusing. I created The Honest Company to help moms and to give all children a better, safer start.” The Honest Company sells a wide range of baby products from toys and diapers to sunscreen and toothpaste all geared for children throughout the stages of young lives.

Alba partnered with Christopher Gavigan to create The Honest Company. Gavigan is a father of three and the former CEO of Healthy Child Healthy World, a national nonprofit empowering parents to protect their children from toxic risks. He’s also a best-selling author promoting healthy families. “Everything I stand for and all I’ve done over the last 15 years has come to this moment,” he says of The Honest Company. “I’m thrilled to launch a brand that offers some of the most thoughtfully designed, innovative, and safest products available.”

The Good

According to the company’s website, The Honest Company aims to make a positive impact for families and the planet. There are strict standards including creating a culture of honesty, creating inspiring and beautiful products that outperform and “exceed expectations.” The brand values its “incredible” customer service that it believes can build “a deeper level of trust.” It prides itself on “accessibility”—membership programs and direct delivery of products right to customers’ doors to make choosing healthy options easier. And for families, the ease of knowing more products are always coming can be a relief from the stresses of shopping.

The Honest Company’s detailed Health & Sustainability Standards outline values when it comes to making “an amazing product without harming people or the planet.” The company explains that it feels a “tremendous responsibility” to the planet and takes steps to create new solutions, reduce impact, cause no unnecessary harm, and make products that are “as non-toxic and healthy as possible.”

Social giving is a core principle for The Honest Company as well. “We are committed to both individual and corporate social responsibility – taking selfless actions that benefit others,” the website states. “This includes charitable partnerships, working with advocates on promoting policy changes that better protect our children and planet, and supporting the efforts of our employees with paid community service days and direct matches of non-profit donations.” Jessica Alba’s profile says she is “actively involved with charities such as Safer Chemicals Healthy Families, ONE, Habitat for Humanity, Project HOME and more.”

The Honest products, namely diapers, are better for the environment than conventional options because they’re not bleached with chlorine, which is energy intensive and damaging to the environment, not to mention those delicate baby bottoms. Honest says its diapers are also hypoallergenic and fragrance-free, which can be especially important for a super sensitive child.

Products like the Honest shampoo/body wash for little ones are promoted as being tear-free. Like all of the Honest personal care products, this is plant-based, hypoallergenic, biodegradable and gentle-on-the-skin. The website states the shampoo/body wash is free of: “SLS, sulfates, parabens, phthalates, fragrances, dyes, sodium chloride, formaldehyde, MEA, DEA, TEA, petrochemicals & most common allergens.”

The Bad

Ultimately, what it comes down to is whether or not the products are really safe for babies. Some of the personal care products do contain sodium benzoate, which in combination with other ingredients, has been connected to cancer risks.

The Honest Company’s toothpaste came under fire by the Cornucopia Institute for use of carrageenan—a known carcinogen. Cornucopia explains on its website, “There is simply no way around it: dozens of scientific, peer-reviewed studies used food-grade carrageenan and found it caused gastrointestinal inflammation, ulcerations, lesions and even colon cancer in laboratory animals.”

The brand also uses cocamidopropyl betaine, which the Environmental Working Group gives a “moderate” risk rating. It’s a synthetic surfactant that’s been associated with irritation and contact dermatitis, EWG’s website notes. Probably not something you want on delicate baby skin. Some products also contain phenoxyethanol, a preservative that also gets near moderate risk rating from the EWG for skin, eye and lung irritation and potential damage to non-reproductive organs.

The popular Honest diapers are a source of controversy, too. While they may be much cleaner and greener than the conventional counterparts like Pampers, they do still contain sodium polyacrylate, a gelling agent that the EWG lists as a low to moderate risk to non-reproductive organs. Some parents report cases of chemical burns on babies who’ve worn disposable diapers because of the sodium polyacrylate in them. It’s so common in diapers (even the natural kind) that the only real way to avoid it is by using cloth diapers.

The Questionable

While the brand says social giving is a core principle, there’s little info on the website to support its efforts. The “Giving Back” tab is surprisingly slim on content, but states “with every product you purchase, The Honest Company donates product, money, time, and effort to addressing critical health & social issues affecting children and families.” With such a statement, you’d think there would be ample examples of social efforts; but no donations or charities are mentioned. (We did find a blog entry on the site from March 3^rd detailing a partnership with the Garden School Foundation.)

And further questions about the company’s character surfaced after The Honest Toddler blog was reportedly threatened by The Honest Company, urging the account to change its name and delete its Twitter and Facebook page because of trademark infringement on the “honest” label. The Honest Toddler reported on its Facebook page: “Last year Jessica Alba’s The Honest Company interviewed me. Today they asked me to delete this Facebook page, my Twitter and blog because they feel like you might get a natural infant’s products company and satirical toddler confused. They say I should just do it because “it could get costly” for me.”

Trademarks are tricky things, and while The Honest Company may be fully within their legal right to pressure the blog about the conflict, it really does seem trite to try and monopolize the market on honest-child-related names. (And as of press time, The Honest Toddler Facebook page was thriving and promoting a book release…)

As to the investment of Honest diapers, the touchstone product of the brand, Slate reports that despite not being as effective at preventing leaks as other diapers (BabyGearLab reportedly tested them), they’re considerably more costly: “[A] bundle of 276 of their size 1 diapers and 280 wipes costs $79.95, but $66.98 will buy you the same number of Huggies size 1 diapers, along with 448 Huggies wipes, on Diapers.com.” If what you’re paying for instead of quality is honesty, hopefully you’re satisfied that the company is forthright.

The honest truth about The Honest Company is that while some products may be cleaner or more effective than others on the market, some aren’t. If you like the subscription model for diapers, it could be an effective choice for your family’s needs. If, however, you prefer purer products at different price points, you may be best served to consider more options.

Is there a brand you’d like us to investigate? Send your Behind the Label suggestions to jill [at] ecosalon [dot] com.

Find Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

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Images: (top) shingleback, all others via The Honest Company

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No more tears… but at what cost?

For many Americans, the lightly floral scent of Johnson’s Baby Shampoo brings to mind the cherubic purity of a newborn baby.

That’s why it was shocking to find that Johnson & Johnson’s popular line of baby care products contains trace amounts of known and probable carcinogens – chemicals that have been linked with cancer.

The information was brought to light by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, which has been calling on Johnson & Johnson to remove these chemicals from their baby products since 2009. In 2011, the Campaign organized a media blitz and boycott, which ended a few weeks later with a promise by Johnson & Johnson to phase out suspect chemicals by 2013. Then, last fall, Johnson & Johnson announced that it would be phasing out suspected carcinogens from all of its cosmetics products – a major commitment from a corporation that huge.

While the announcement is certainly a victory, it has come with its drawbacks. In being open and transparent about its efforts, Johnson & Johnson has also brought attention to the fact that its products contained potentially toxic ingredients in the first place – a fact that many consumers were previously unaware of. This week’s Behind the Label takes a look at the Johnson & Johnson’s controversy, but also at the risks involved in taking corporate social responsibility public.

The Good

With 250 subsidiaries and operations in 175 countries, Johnson & Johnson is one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. Its products are a roll call of household names: Band-Aids, Tylenol, Neutrogena, and, of course, Johnson’s baby products.

That’s why the news that Johnson & Johnson is removing suspected toxins from all of its cosmetics products is significant. It’s the first major commitment by a multinational pharmaceuticals corporation to remove commonly used but potentially toxic chemicals from products on a large scale.

The new policy will extend to Johnson products that are classified as “cosmetics,” with the addition of sunscreen and acne medication, and will encompass popular brands like Aveeno, Clean & Clear, Johnson’s, Lubriderm, Neutrogena, and RoC.

According to the New York Times, Johnson’s also intends to phase out other toxins and irritants, including phthalates, triclosan, and synthetic fragrances. All parabens will be removed from baby products, and some parabens will be removed from adult products.

Publicizing this new initiative was bold, but also risky. As the New York Times noted:

Johnson & Johnson’s decision requires the company to navigate a public relations tightrope, by portraying itself as willing to make extensive changes while simultaneously reassuring consumers that its existing products are safe.

Seventh Generation, which has a competing line of natural baby products, applauded Johnson & Johnson’s efforts, but noted that more needs to be done. “Johnson & Johnson’s announcement represents a start, but it’s clear that the need for sweeping systemic change that would remove all hazards from all products remains,” read a company press release. “We urge Johnson & Johnson, and all personal care and cosmetic companies, to follow the Precautionary Principle and do just that.”

The Bad

While Johnson & Johnson’s announcement was a significant step forward, it also highlighted the fact that the company’s baby products contained potentially harmful chemicals in the first place. While Johnson’s insists that all of its products undergo a five-level safety assurance process, and that these chemicals are not harmful in small doses, the news still raised a major red flag among parents.

Specifically, Johnson’s Baby Shampoo was found to contain two chemicals suspected of contributing to cancer. One is quaternium-15, a preservative that acts as a formaldehyde-releaser. Formaldehyde, also found in disinfectants and cigarette smoke, was declared a known human carcinogen by the U.S. National Toxicology Program in June 2011, though it has been listed as an “anticipated human carcinogen” since 1981.

According to the Associated Press, quaternium-15 is not present in Johnson’s baby products sold in at least eight other countries, including the U.K., Denmark, Japan, and South Africa, but it remains in Johnson’s baby products sold in the U.S., Canada, China, Indonesia, and Australia.

The second suspect ingredient is 1,4-dioxane, a probable human carcinogen that is generated during the ethoxylation process, which, ironically, is used to make other chemicals less harsh on the skin. According to the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, it is highly unlikely that one product containing 1,4-dioxane will cause harm on its own. However,

… repeated exposures from many different products add up. The same baby could be exposed to 1,4-dioxane from baby shampoo, bath bubbles and body wash in a single bath, as well as from other contaminated personal care products today, tomorrow and the next day. Repeated exposures to a single carcinogen, synergistic effects from exposures to multiple carcinogenic and mutagenic ingredients, and concerns about exposures at key points in development (such as pregnancy, infancy and puberty) are cause for concern even though little risk is evident from a single small exposure.

According to the Campaign, the presence of 1,4-dioxane is preventable by using “vacuum-stripping” to remove the chemical from an ethoxylated product, or by simply using less-harsh ingredients, like organic ones, to begin with.

The Questionable

This controversy was clearly preventable. Johnson & Johnson has long been formulating carcinogen-free baby products for European and foreign markets. So why did it take years of political pressure from advocacy groups for Johnson to make the same commitment in the U.S.?

Susan Nettesheim, who heads up Johnson’s evaluation of product chemicals and safety, told the Associated Press that the decision to produce different formulas in different countries is “based on the availability of raw materials, development of formulas that were done in many cases years ago and consumer preferences” for the look and feel of products. Though Johnson & Johnson says that it is “working with global suppliers” to reduce chemicals like 1,4-dioxane to less than four parts per million, it won’t completely phase out the chemicals in U.S. baby products until 2013.

Seventh Generation points out that Johnson’s Natural product line and healthier overseas formulations are proof that Johnson’s is capable of taking much stronger and more comprehensive steps quickly and easily. “Eliminating a handful of the harmful ingredients from a formula while allowing others to remain and taking years to fully implement this is a half-measure and ultimately accomplishes little. It compels the question: is this about protecting public relations or public health?”

The news has also created suspicion among consumers, particularly moms who were shocked to learn that the baby products they had assumed were safe might not be.

“In my household, we never use J&J baby products because they contain a number of potentially harmful chemicals,” mommy blogger Jennifer Taggart told the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. “If they can produce for Europe a product that doesn’t contain carcinogens, why can’t they produce it for (American) babies?”

SEE ALSO:

Behind the Label: Burt’s Bees

Behind the Label: Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics

Behind the Label: The Body Shop’s ‘Against Animal Testing’ Campaign

Behind the Label: Avon’s Crusade Against Breast Cancer

Read more Behind the Label here.

Images: Greg Tee

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