Campaign Gets Companies to Make Safer Cosmetics

A coalition of consumer and environmental groups says several hundred companies now meet all or many of the goals in its campaign to get hazardous chemicals removed from cosmetics and other personal care products.

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has been working for seven years to get makers of shampoo, soaps and other toiletries to remove the chemicals linked to birth defects and preservatives that releases formaldehyde from those products.

It says 321 companies have now met all the campaign's goals and another 111 have met many of them.

The coalition of about 150 groups also has been pushing Johnson & Johnson to remove harsh and potentially dangerous chemicals from its baby products worldwide. The health giant is now steadily doing so.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)