Take Action! Ask Avon to Sign the Compact for Safe Cosmetics!


The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics created the Compact for Safe Cosmetics to improve the safety of cosmetics and personal care products and to provide better information about product ingredients so consumers can make informed decisions about the products they buy.


We are concerned about several companies’ refusals to become signatories to the Compact for Safe Cosmetics while simultaneously launching Pink Ribbon campaigns to “raise awareness” about breast cancer.

Avon is leading a crusade against breast cancer and they have donated a tremendous amount of money to breast cancer initiatives. So, why don’t they address the problem of potentially harmful chemicals in their cosmetics and replace them with safe alternatives? Avon has refused to sign the Compact for Safe Cosmetics, and BCAM finds this stance inconsistent with their commitment to women’s health concerns.

We need your help in sending a message to the cosmetics industry! Please join us in demanding safe cosmetics and body care products!!

TAKE ACTION NOW!! THERE ARE THREE WAYS!


ACTION NUMBER 1: Send Avon Canada’s President Chris Stevens an email. You can use our letter below or write your own.


ACTION NUMBER 2: We're also launching a social media blitz on Twitter and Facebook this Wednesday to Friday (October 6 to October 8, 2010), demanding that Avon become a signatory to the Compact for Safe Cosmetics. We need you to post messages ( choose one of ours – we’ve suggested some below - or write your own) on Avon’s Facebook page, and Twitter account!

Finally, ACTION NUMBER 3,be sure to sign and RT our petition on twitter to get all your followers involved and to send a really powerful message!


Check out our press release about Alternatives to Pink, and for more information on the Compact for Safe Cosmetics, please refer back to the website for the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.


Facebook comment suggestions….
You will find Avon on Facebook here(Canada) and here(Global). “Like” them so that you can comment on their wall or posts! Have fun, but be nice!

Avon - please live up to your pink ribbon promises and sign the Compact for Safe Cosmetics!!

Avon - please clean up your act and your products! Keep women's bodies safe by removing potential hormone disrupting chemicals! Sign the Compact!

Canada’s current standards for regulating cosmetic ingredients only aim to “manage” risk rather than eliminating possible hazards to human health and the environment. Avon – please be an industry leader and sign the Compact for Safe Cosmetics!

If Avon is leading a crusade against breast cancer as you say, why aren’t you addressing the problem of potentially harmful chemicals in your cosmetics and replacing them with safe alternatives? Please take a stand for women and sign the Compact for Safe Cosmetics.

Avon  - your five values are Trust, Respect, Belief, Humility, and Integrity – so why do your products still contain chemicals linked to cancer? Please sign the Compact for Safe Cosmetics and live up to your values!

We don’t have a choice about the genetic factors linked to breast cancer, but we have choices when it comes to what we put on our body! I want safe products and I want Avon Canada to protect women’s CHOICE to have safe products!!

Your can also update your profile status with: "I just asked @My Avon Canada  – the company for women – to take a stand against breast cancer by becoming a signatory to the Compact for Safe Cosmetics!  (This is most effective if you tag Avon in your status. Don’t know how? By writing “@My Avon Canada” instead of just “Avon” in your status, they will be notified that you have tagged them! Remember though, you need to LIKE them first.)


On Twitter?


Avon please live up to your pink ribbon promises and sign the Compact for Safe Cosmetics!! @myavoncanada  #avonsafecosmetics

Not SO pretty! Chemicals might mess with our hormones shouldn’t be in our cosmetics! @myavoncanada  #avonsafecosmetics

The EU passed legislation to keep toxins out of cosmetics! Avon, please take a stand and sign the compact! @myavoncanada  #avonsafecosmetics

Even a little is too much! Avon, be an industry leader and remove possible endocrine disrupting ingredients! @myavoncanada  #avonsafecosmetics

Here are some sample tweets, but feel free to get creative! Just remember to use @My Avon Canada and #Avonsafecosmetics at the end of your tweet so folks can stay involved in the conversation.

Finally, Spread your passion and message on twitter by RTing our petition which will reach out to your followers. Read our petition here or copy and paste the following into your tweet:

petition @MyAvonCanada to Sign the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics!! http://act.ly/2fx RT to sign #avonsafecosmetics


 

Send this letter to Avon Canada president Chris Stevens: chris.stevens@avon.com

You can alternatively copy and paste this email text and send it from your inbox since the formating seems to come out better, you can add or change the text, and you can select multiple recipients. Emails can also be sent to Avon's PR department, natalie.laurence@avon.com

Subject : Avon's commitment to women
Message : Dear Chris Stevens, President of Avon Canada, This October, in light of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I want to thank Avon – the company for women - for its dedication and many years of service in the pursuit of a cure for breast cancer and its unparalleled response to women’s health concerns and support of women’s financial autonomy. While it is important and valuable that Avon has supported pink ribbon initiatives in the past, and while these fundraising efforts respond to a great need for research, I am concerned that an important aspect of women’s health is being forgotten: disease prevention. Research into the primary prevention of breast cancer is necessary and mounting, and there is growing research that illustrates the connection between breast cancer and the use of potentially harmful chemicals in the production of cosmetics. According to Health Canada, "[o]nly ingredients that do not pose an unreasonable health and safety risk to the Canadian public, when used according to directions, are allowed in cosmetic products." In my opinion, this is not enough, and I think considering Avon’s commitment to women’s health concerns and women’s empowerment globally, Avon Canada must hold itself to higher standards such as those set by the European Union and by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.The Compact for Safe Cosmetics acknowledges and advocates that consumers have a right to safe personal care products, and demands that companies take responsibility and take steps towards understanding the health effects of the chemicals in their products and making changes where necessary. As of September 2010 Avon, although aware of the Compact for Safe Cosmetics, has refused to sign it. I feel that if Avon is truly concerned with supporting women’s health and making “safe” products as its mission states, it shouldn’t be difficult to sign the Compact. Hundreds of companies have already signed the Compact, and in doing so, have made a commitment to manufacture personal care products free of potentially carcinogenic and endocrine disrupting chemicals. So, for Canadian women, women around the world, and the generations of women after us, and in honour of women with breast cancer – past and present, I would like to call on Avon Canada, this October, to be an industry leader by becoming a signatory of the Compact for Safe Cosmetics. Because I know that Avon is a vocal supporter of pink ribbon initiatives with its fundraising products and Breast Cancer Crusade campaign, I am confident that Avon Canada will want to further demonstrate its commitment and mission through supporting this initiative for women’s health. Sincerely,
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This email will be sent to chris.stevens@avon.com
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