The word "clean" on your shampoo bottle means exactly nothing — legally, anyway. The U.S. has taken so long to update regulations that it's created a huge gap between what consumers want — products without toxic chemicals — and what the government regulates. This means only a small portion of toxic chemicals used in manufacturing are actually regulated at a national level. Folks like advocate and author Lindsay Dahl have been working for decades to close this gap, passing dozens of laws in the process. But the regulatory gap has left space for a "clean" industry to emerge, and rack up lots of cash. The "clean" beauty industry alone is worth $7 billion.

In this episode, we talk to Lindsay Dahl about how we've gone this far without adequate toxicity regulation and how to shop smarter, we hear how big beauty brands have pushed back against regulation, we find out how to use our voices for federal-level change, and we hear how our community is navigating this tricky landscape.

If you want to check out any of the orgs Lindsay mentioned, you can find some here, and the full list is in her book, Cleaning House: 

• Toxic Free Future
• Natural Resources Defense Council
• Environmental Defense Fund
• Environmental Working Group
• Saferstates.org 

 
Episode rundown:

• (00:36) - Why is this my job?

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Episode Credits

• Listener contributions: Anna, Darice Chang, Nyiah, Kayla Joy , Sawyer, Grace Hebert, Dom Altomari
• Research: Makenna McBrierty
• Editing and engineering: Evan Goodchild‍
• Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham