USA vs European Chemical Standards in Personal Care

I was never someone who paid much attention to health regulations. By that, I mean that I trusted the government to protect us by preventing dangerous chemicals from being a part of our food, cosmetics, and cleaning agents. Since joining H2O at Home, I have learned way more than I wanted to. I had heard through the grapevine that certain ingredients were banned in Europe that were not in the US, but I never looked much further into it. Well, now I am. 

Some facts that shocked me:

• "The EU law bans 1,328 chemicals from cosmetics that are known or suspected to cause cancer, genetic mutation, reproductive harm or birth defects. In comparison, the U.S. FDA has only banned or restricted 11 chemicals from cosmetics." 
• "Unlike the United States, EU law requires pre-market safety assessments of cosmetics, mandatory registration of cosmetic products, government authorization for the use of nanomaterials and prohibits animal testing for cosmetic purposes."
• "A key element of the European Union's chemicals management and environmental protection policies — and one that clearly distinguishes the EU's approach from that of the U.S. federal government — is what's called the precautionary principle: This principle, in the words of the European Commission, "aims at ensuring a higher level of environmental protection through preventative" decision-making. In other words, it says that when there is substantial, credible evidence of danger to human or environmental health, protective action should be taken despite continuing scientific uncertainty. In contrast, the U.S. federal government's approach to chemicals management sets a very high bar for the proof of harm that must be demonstrated before regulatory action is taken."
• "The process for restricting chemical use under TSCA can also take years; in fact, only a handful of chemicals have ever been barred under TSCA. [ U.S. Toxic Substances Control Act - the federal law that regulates chemicals used commercially in the U.S.]"
• "Industry performs copious testing, but current law does not require that cosmetic ingredients be free of certain adverse health effects before they go on the market...So, even though the personal care products and cosmetics products industry has extensive voluntary ingredient safety guidelines — and obvious incentives to meet them — they are not legal requirements." 

As a consumer, I would prefer to live under the "precautionary principle" of the EU, than the US approach of "prove it, then we'll remove it". That's crazy to me that we just let products on the market that could harm us

I obviously knew that there were certain aspects of cleaning products that were dangerous; because how else are you supposed to really clean and kill germs and bacteria? But if I can clean my house without those dangerous chemicals and fumes, you had better believe I'm going to.

Sources: Business Insider & SafeCosmetics.org