News-Roundup on the Campaign to Boycott 40th IFRA Amendment
Several magazines & websites continue the Cropwatch Boycott of IFRA's 40th Amendment story. Clare Henderson writes a very fair & sensible account of the issues at cosmeticsbusiness.com. Perfumer & Flavorist give an account of why (under pressure from IFRA) they removed the Cropwatch vs. IFRA poll result, and publish an astonishing letter from Jean-Pierre Houri of IFRA. Tony Burfield of Cropwatch indicates that Jean-Pierre has failed to do his homework in attempting to dismiss the Cropwatch phenomena, and gives an account of a Perfumers life under fragrance over-regulation at which carries on at basenotes.net.
Meanwhile, as the end of March 2007 deadline for submission of material to the SCCP to indicate that Tea Tree Oil is in fact safe to use in Cosmetics, a flurry of papers on alleging negative health effects for essential oils have emerged. Several commentators have remarked that this timing is not co-incidental, and that the non-investigative journalism featured by science reporters who have merely copied such stories to UK newspapers, is no co-incidence either. One such account, featuring a dubious hypothesis by Derek Henley & chums, allegedly linking Lavender oil and Tea tree oil in applied cosmetics to gynecomastia in 3 young boys, published in the New England Journal of Medicine is featured in an article by ATTIA, who are demanding that the article is withdrawn. This can be seen at http://www.attia.org.au/articles/attia%20response%20gynecomastia%20allegations%20feb%202007.pdf
Other articles splashed across UK newspapers lately, and requiring further examination by Cropwatch before any further comment, include a link between the reduction of hirsutism in women and drinking spearmint tea several times/day [Akdoan M., Tamer M.H., Cüre E., Cüre M.C., Körolu B.K. Deliba N. (2007) "Effect of spearmint (Mentha spicata Labiatae) teas on androgen levels in women with hirsutism." Phytotherapy Research 10.1002/ptr.2074] and an allegation that tea tree oil users could fact increased health risks from MRSA if used at les than 4% (Taylor J. (2007) Metro 16.0.07. p7), based on an article the abstract of which can be seen at http://jac.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/dkl443v1.
Tony Burfield
Cropwatch
www.cropwatch.org
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