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CAUTION ! False Organic Brands

May 29, 2008

File Lawsuit Against Major 'Organic' Cheater Brands
4/28/2008

Offending Companies Claim "Organic" or "Organics" on Labels
But Main Cleansing Ingredients Are Based on Conventional
Agricultural and/or Petrochemical Material

(SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Their was filed a lawsuit in
California Superior Court today against numerous personal
care brands to force them to stop making misleading organic
labeling claims. The Organic Consumers Association (OCA)
had warned offending brands that they faced litigation
unless they committed to either drop their organic claims
or reformulate away from main ingredients made from
conventional agricultural and/or petrochemical material
without any certified organic material. OCA has played the
leading role in exposing and educating consumers about
deceptive organic branding.

For example: The major cleansing ingredient in Jason "Pure,
Natural & Organic" liquid soaps, body washes and shampoos
is Sodium Myreth Sulfate, which involves ethoxylating a
conventional non-organic fatty chain with the carcinogenic
petrochemical Ethylene Oxide, which produces caricinogenic
1,4-Dioxane as a contaminant. The major cleansing
ingredient in Avalon "Organics" soaps, bodywashes and
shampoos, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, contains conventional
non-organic agricultural material combined with the
petrochemical Amdiopropyl Betaine. Nature's Gate
"Organics" main cleansers are Disodium Laureth
Sulfosuccinate (ethoxylated) and Cocamidopropyl Betaine.
Kiss My Face "Obsessively Organic" cleansers are Olefin
Sulfonate (a pure petrochemical) and Cocamidopropyl
Betaine. Juice "Organics", Giovanni "Organic Cosmetics",
Head "Organics", Desert Essence "Organics", and Ikove
"Organic" all use Cocamdiopropyl Betaine as a main
cleansing ingredient and no cleansers made from certified
organic material. Due to the petrochemical compounds used
to make the ingredient, Cocamidopropyl Betaine is
contaminated with traces of Sodium monochloroacetate,
Amidoamine (AA), and dimethylaminopropylamine(DMAPA).
Amidoamine in particular is suspected of causing skin
sensitization and allergic reactions even at very low
levels for certain individuals. Organic consumers have a
right to expect that the personal care products they
purchase with organic branding or label claims, contain
cleansing ingredients made from organic agricultural
material, not conventional or petrochemical material, and
thus have absolutely no petrochemical contaminants that
could pose any concern.

Lawsuit Also Names Estee Lauder, Stella McCartney's CARE,
Ecocert and OASIS

Ecocert is a French-based certifier with a standard that
allows not only cleansing ingredients made from
conventional versus organic agriculture, but also allows
inclusion, in the cleansing ingredients contained in
products labeled as ":Made with Organic" ingredients, of
certain petrochemicals such as Amidopropyl Betaine in
Cocamidopropyl Betaine. Even worse, despite Ecocert's own
regulations prohibiting the labeling as "Organic" of a
product containing less than 100% organic content, Ecocert
in practice engages in "creative misinterpretation" of its
own rules in order to accommodate clients engaging in
organic mislabeling. For instance, Ecocert certifies the
Ikove brand's cleansing products to contain less than 50%
organic content, noted in small text on the back of the
product, where all cleansing ingredients are non-organic
including Cocamidopropyl Betaine which contains petroleum
compounds. Yet the product is labeled "Organic" Amazonian
Avocado Bath & Shower Gel. Another instance is Stella
McCartney's "100% Organic" CARE line certified by Ecocert
that labels products as "100% Organic" that are not 100%
Organic alongside ones that are; the labels of products
that are not 100% organic simply insert the word "Active"
before "Ingredients." In allowing such labeling, Ecocert
simply ignores the requirements of its own certification
standards. Furthermore, the primary organic content in most
Ecocert certified products comes from "Flower Waters" in
which up to 80% of the "organic" content consists merely
of just regular tap water that Ecocert counts as "organic."

Explicitly relying on the weak Ecocert standard as
precedent, the new Organic and Sustainable Industry
Standard ("OASIS")-a standard indeed developed exclusively
by certain members of the industry, primarily Estee Lauder,
with no consumer input-will permit certification of
products outright as "Organic" (rather than as "Made with
Organic" ingredients) even if such products contain
hydrogenated and sulfated cleansing ingredients such as
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate made from conventional agricultural
material grown with synthetic fertilizers, herbicides and
pesticides, and preserved with synthetic petrochemical
preservatives such as Ethylhexylglycerin and
Phenoxyethanol. [Reference: OASIS Standard section 6.2 and
Anti-Microbial List] The organic content is required to
only be 85%, which in water and detergent-based personal
care products, means organic water extracts and aloe vera
will greenwash conventional synthetic cleansing ingredients
and preservatives.

The OASIS standard is not merely useless but deliberately
misleading to organic consumers looking for a reliable
indicator of true "organic" product integrity in personal
care. Organic consumers expect that cleansing ingredients
in products labeled "Organic" be made from organic not
conventional agriculture, to not be hydrogenated or
sulfated, and to be free from synthetic petrochemical
preservatives. Surprisingly, companies represented on the
OASIS board, such as Hain (Jason "Pure, Natural & Organic";
Avalon "Organics") and Cosway (Head "Organics",) produce
liquid soap, bodywash and shampoo products with
petrochemicals in their cleansers even though use of
petrochemicals in this way is not permitted even under the
very permissible OASIS standard these companies have
themselves developed and endorsed.
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In Contrast Natures Paradise is certified by the USDA and
uses only USDA Certified Organic ingredients and has
promised to never allow a chemical in or near our
manufacturing facility. Making it the safest and purest
skin care available.