Help Design Organic Personal Care Standards
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Have you ever wanted to be the person who creates the standards industry is to abide by? Now's your chance: A panel of organic experts, including the OCA, has been meeting for the past two years to develop organic standards for personal care products (i.e. shampoo, toothpaste, cosmetics, lotions, etc.). Although there are dozens of personal care products on the market advertising themselves as "organic," unless they have the USDA Organic Seal, it's next to impossible for a consumer to tell which ones are really organic. Acting on this problem, a first draft of proposed standards for "organic" personal care products is nearing completion, but we need your input to make sure that these standards meet consumer expectations.
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1. To what degree do you purchase organic food products?

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2. Do you currently use any personal care products (e.g. shampoo, lotion, toothpaste, cosmetics, etc.) that contain organic ingredients?

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3. All "organic" labeling of products in the U.S. is regulated by the government.

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4. If you saw a food product labeled as "Made with Organic Ingredients", what portion of organic ingredients would you expect in that product?

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5. If you saw a personal care product labeled as "Made with Organic Ingredients", what portion of organic ingredients would you expect in that product?

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6. If all you knew about "Product A" is that it is certified organic and all you knew about "Product B" is that it has the USDA Organic seal, which product would you think is more organic?

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7. Are you aware that the USDA national organic standards allow the use of certain synthetic ingredients and processing aids in minor amounts in food products that are considered "necessary" for food production (example: ethylene--used to ripen tropical fruit)?

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8. The current list of allowed synthetic ingredients under the national organic standards was developed specifically for food products. There are some personal care companies (e.g. lotion, lip balm, etc.) that are currently meeting those food-grade standards and claim no new synthetics should be allowed. But there are some personal care companies that claim certain types of products can't be made without additional synthetic ingredients (example: nearly all sunscreens currently rely on zinc oxide to block the sun, which is a synthetic ingredient). Should personal care companies get to add more allowable synthetic ingredients to that list for the non-organic portion of their products that are labeled "70% Organic"?

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9. Which of the following type of product do you believe synthetic detergents should be allowed in (note: Shampoos typically use one of three different types of "cleansers": detergents, soaps or natural plant saponins. Each of these "cleans" the hair in a different way. The majority of mainstream non-organic shampoos on the market are currently detergent based. Some argue that if a product claims to be natural and organic, the detergents should be replaced with soaps or natural plant saponins. Others argue that a product will function very differently without the synthetic detergent, thereby making it function differently from what a consumer may expect.):

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10. Which of the following type of product do you believe synthetic preservatives should be allowed in (note: the majority of mainstream non-organic personal care products on the market contain synthetic preservatives. Some argue that if a product claims to be natural and organic, these synthetic preservatives should not be allowed as the National Organic Program does not allow synthetic preservatives and there are natural preservatives and methods of bottling a product to provide a limited shelf life without synthetics. Others argue that removing synthetic preservatives from personal care products would result in a shortened shelf-life and possible microbial contamination, thereby requiring some personal care products to be refrigerated or labeled with an expiration date):

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11. If a personal care product has the word "organic" or "organics" on its label, claims to be made of 70% organic material and also contains synthetic ingredients that are not currently allowed under the USDA National Organic Program, the following should be required:

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12. Some ingredients in personal care products can be absorbed into the bloodstream through the hair follicles and/or through the skin:

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13. If a personal care company uses the word "Organic" or "Organics" in their company name (example: "Bob's Organics"), how should the laws apply to their products?

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14. If you see the name of the certifying agent on the label of a personal care product labeled "organic," what should you expect from that product?

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15. When purchasing a personal care product with the word "organic" on the front label, how frequently do you read the full ingredient panel on the back before choosing to purchase that particular product?

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16. How often do you look for the "USDA Organic" seal on a product that claims to be organic?

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17. How often do you look for some statement of "certification" on a product that claims to be organic?

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18. Personal care products that do not advertise themselves as "100% Organic" but contain at least 70% organic ingredients should be allowed to contain synthetic detergents and preservatives if:

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19. If you answered (a) above, (i.e. that a synthetic detergent or preservative should only be allowed if it could be made by processing organic source materials) should that same synthetic detergent or preservative be allowed if the source organic materials were not commercially available, thereby requiring the use of non-organic source materials?

   


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