A Lot of organic and natural beauty products are being released to cosmetics market these days, but consumer rights advocates are now questioning whether there goods are really green.
Consumers are more health-conscious and they are angry over the recent discovery of talc containing asbestos in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, leading to organic products flying off local shelves.
Many department stores in Seoul like Lotte, Hyundai said that the sales of green cosmetics have more than doubled from last year’s numbers.
The growing sales suggest that consumers in general trust these organic products to be better for their bodies and also for the environment. Obviously many consumers would be shocked to know that the KFDA (Korea Food and Drug Administration) has no answer when asked “What is an organic beauty product?”
The country doesn’t have any certification standards for companies using the word “organic” in brand names, so the organization will fail to control how much of a product is made from organic elements. There also are no requirements for companies to display the “organic percentages” of their products on packaging.
So, in many cases, consumers have no idea whether the lotion they just bought uses 90 percent organic ingredients or less than 1 percent.
Even a wide range of organic beauty supplies, such as shampoos and lotions, were found to contain undesirable substances known to cause health problems.
According to Korean consumers’ report, they found that seven out of nine organic baby products sold here contain substances that are informed as potential health hazards by American’s Environmental Working Group and the European Consumers’ Organization (BEUC).
And many product “organic,” “natural” and “green” are not revealing their usage of organic ingredients on their package, which includes Boryung’s Nuk Classic Face Cream and Dr. Atomild Essential Moisture Wash, Yuhan-Kimberly’s Green finger products and Johnson & Johon’s Soothing Natural baby products.
“Consumers trust organic baby products to be safer than other products, but you can argue that such beliefs aren’t backed up much logic,” said official from Consumer Korea.
Source : Naver English News , Korea Times
