San Rafael student wins national award
for campaign against toxic cosmetics

By Matt Wynkoop, Bay City News Service

October 27, 2006

A 16-year old San Rafael girl will be honored with a national award today for her strides to rid the cosmetics industry of harmful toxins.

The San Francisco-based Earth Island Institute will honor Jessica Assaf, a junior at The Branson School in Ross, with the Brower Youth Award for her efforts to campaign against daily-use cosmetic products that contain chemicals linked to cancer and reproductive ailments.

Jessica became involved with the Marin Cancer Project three years ago when she enrolled in The Branson School's community service program.

"I had read that Marin County has some of the highest cancer rates in the country, said Assaf. "I wanted to know why they were so high and along the way I discovered that there are lots of cancer-causing products in products teens use everyday.''

Working with the Teens for Safe Cosmetics Campaign and the Marin Cancer Project, Assaf created Operation Beauty Drop, where she and a team of friends placed large bins in Bay Area public malls to encourage teenagers to check their beauty products for toxic ingredients and then drop them off.

Assaf and her team then sent the collected products back to their manufacturers with a petition demanding they stop including certain toxic chemicals in the production of their products.

"A lot of really hazardous ingredients can be labeled under only colors or fragrances,'' said Assaf. We're never really taught to question what's in these products and the Federal Drug Administration has lax restrictions about how toxic ingredients can be labeled.''

Assaf and four friends also lobbied state senators and the California governor's office to pass SB 484, a bill that would require cosmetics manufacturers to inform the Department Health Services when products contain carcinogens or other toxic substances.

"I believe in a precautionary principal,'' said Asaff. "Everyone can work at even the grassroots level because it's all about consumer power and spreading the word. Teens have as much power as adults - and sometimes more.''

Assaf is one if six students from around the U.S. and Canada to be honored for their achievements in social and environmental justice.

The Brower Youth Awards were established to honor Earth Island Institute's late founder, environmentalist David R. Brower.

The award ceremony will take place at 6 p.m. at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, located at 701 Mission St. in San Francisco.

Copyright © 2006 by Bay City News, Inc. -- Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.

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