Since 1869, Packer’s Pine has helped people keep their skin clean and nourished with a natural bar soap derived from pine tar and pine oil. Today, the company is putting its support behind a series of bills that help eliminate cancer-causing chemicals in beauty and personal care products.
Packer’s Pine is using its platform as a maker of the popular pine tar soap to urge customers to write their congressional representatives, urging them to support the Safer Beauty Bill Package. The package has been introduced to the U.S. Congress and contains four bills that:
- Ban cancer-causing and other harmful chemicals commonly found in self-care products. These include mercury, lead, asbestos, parabens, phthalates, formaldehyde, and more. Currently, these chemicals can be legally included in personal care and beauty products, even though they have been associated with a host of health problems, from cancer to hormone disruptions to brain damage. They are also detrimental to the environment.
- Require that these chemicals be disclosed on the products’ labeling.
- Require greater transparency from upstream suppliers so that cosmetic companies know exactly what is in the ingredients that they are using in their products.
- Extend greater protections to women of color, who are more commonly exposed to products that contain these chemicals, and salon workers.
The bill is sponsored by Breast Cancer Prevention Partners, with additional sponsorship by Black Women for Wellness — Environmental Justice, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, and the California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative.
Packer’s Pine has long embraced a commitment to avoid these chemicals in their products, which include pine tar soap, body wash, and shampoo. While many cleansing products contain harmful chemicals as cheap fillers and preservatives (including paraben, creosote, and sulfate), Packer’s Pine soap is free of these chemicals.
Instead, the company draws on nature-based ingredients that are gentle on the skin. The pine oil and pine tar in their products have been shown to reduce eczema, psoriasis, and dandruff. They can also function as a deet-free bug repellent, warding off mosquitoes, ticks, and chiggers. In fact, in the lead up to WWII, the Army Corps of Engineers used Packer’s Pine soap as their mosquito repellent of choice.
The push for cleaner beauty products is accelerating, in part thanks to a recently released HBO Max series known as “Not so Pretty” that exposes the toxic underbelly of the largely unregulated beauty industry.
David Zelken, Packer’s Pine President, said he hopes that messages from this series and clean beauty initiatives, coupled with the Safer Beauty Bill Package, will apply the needed pressure to enact change. “The food industry was similarly unregulated until people united to make sweeping changes for improved safety,” said Zelken. “We’re at a crossroads here, and we believe that public support for this bill can get things pointed in a better direction.”
To learn more about the Packer’s Pine commitment to clean, toxin-free personal care products, visit www.PackersPine.com.
About Packer’s Pine
Packer’s Pine is the original maker of pine tar-based personal care products sold worldwide since 1869. They source the highest-grade pine tar and pine oil, combining them with complementary ingredients to ensure a premium product of the utmost quality and performance.
