3.11 Evaluating New Information

Some sources estimate that there are more than 12 000 chemical ingredients used in cosmetics, of which less than 20% have been reviewed for safety. While Health Canada maintains a list of substances whose use in cosmetics comes under some form of restriction (www.hc-sc.gc.ca/), most cosmetic ingredients are only subject to labelling requirements. The Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep cosmetics database (www.ewg.org/skindeep) has ratings for more than 68 000 products from approximately 3000 brands. Each product is rated on a scale of 0–10 for the level of hazard (low, moderate, high) and data availability for the ingredients.

Evaluate the Skin Deep website and work with the information to answer the following questions: