Environmental justice is rooted in the belief that everyone deserves the right to live, work, and thrive in a safe, healthy environment. Traditionally, this has meant holding polluting industries accountable for their role in creating harmful environments, especially in marginalized communities. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, people of color are disproportionately exposed to higher levels of air pollution compared to white populations. Further, a study from George Washington University reveals that communities of color experience pediatric asthma rates 7.5 times higher than predominantly white communities.
But what if we took a closer look at the layers of exposure and how race, gender, and socioeconomic status intersect? The beauty industry offers a revealing lens into these inequities. For Black women, the evidence is particularly stark. A growing body of research shows that Black women are disproportionately exposed to toxic chemicals through beauty and personal care products marketed specifically to them. These products often contain higher levels of hazardous substances like endocrine disruptors, carcinogens, and other harmful chemicals that pose significant health risks.
Environmental Justice and the Beauty Industry
Our Environmental Justice Organizer, X Braithwaite, is leading efforts to address these harmful exposures from their base in Newark, New Jersey. Newark is designated by the State as an overburdened community. Examples of this are spoken to in the high cumulative exposure to pollution from industrial facilities, heavy truck traffic, and persistently poor air and water quality. Kim Gaddy, former Environmental Justice Director for Clean Water Action and founder of the South Ward Environmental Alliance (SWEA), says, “In the City of Newark, asthma is the city's biggest crime. Statistically speaking, more people die of asthma than homicides. School age children in Newark have double the state and national average rate (25%) for asthma resulting in most missed school days and unaffordable medical bills.” These realities underscore the urgent need for action, transitioning us to the broader efforts being led to combat environmental injustices in Newark and beyond.
“To me, being an Environmental Justice Organizer means connecting the everyday struggle to breathe with the lived experiences of the communities I serve and live in,” says Braithwaite. “Environmental justice has many faces. Sometimes it looks like chronic health conditions or increased rates of respiratory diseases. What’s most concerning is how our communities are consistently overrepresented in these statistics but underserved in addressing the underlying issues.”
The beauty industry represents a lesser-discussed but crucial aspect of environmental justice. Black women are at heightened risk due to the prevalence of toxic chemicals in products marketed to them, from hair relaxers to skin lightening creams. In a 2023 commentary, Bhavna Shamasunder, assistant professor of urban and environmental policy at Occidental College, says that, “For women who live in already polluted neighborhoods, beauty product chemicals may add to their overall burden of exposures to toxic chemicals ... Certain racial/ethnic groups may be systematically and disproportionately exposed to chemicals in beauty products since factors such as institutionalized racism can influence product use." The cumulative exposure to these chemicals, combined with environmental stressors like air and water pollution, exacerbates health risks such as hormone disruption, cancer, and reproductive health issues.
Fighting for Safer Products
Organizations like WEACT for Environmental Justice are at the forefront of addressing these disparities. Their Beauty Inside Out program, led by Beauty Justice Organizer Liz Reyes, advocates for systemic change in the beauty industry. The program focuses on educating consumers about the dangers of toxic chemicals, pushing for stricter regulations, and encouraging manufacturers to adopt safer, sustainable practices.
Connecting the Dots: Beauty, Packaging, and Sustainability
The environmental justice implications of the beauty industry don’t stop at toxic chemicals. Packaging waste is another critical issue. The beauty industry generates millions of tons of plastic waste annually, much of which ends up in landfills or polluting waterways. Marginalized communities often bear the brunt of this waste, with landfills, incinerators, recycling and other waste facilities disproportionately located near/in their neighborhoods.
Advocating for sustainability in the beauty industry means addressing these dual harms—eliminating toxic chemicals and reducing waste. Solutions like refillable packaging, biodegradable materials, and zero-waste policies can mitigate the environmental burden while ensuring communities aren’t left to bear the consequences of industry negligence.
So often, appearances have been equated to value. Across all cultures, certain aspects are prioritized and seen as the peak of beauty. More often than not, the groups that shoulder the burden of remaining within these standards are women or female-presenting people. Even within the United States, the beauty standard changes from state to state. Growing up both in Connecticut and Georgia, Molly Cleary understood the stark difference in the standards of beauty in both places. “I am a pale white woman with darker brown inconsistently wavy hair, freckles, and blue eyes. The stereotypical Irish woman.” She continues, “In Utah, long, curled, blonde hair is seen as the standard for every woman. In the Deep South, in states like Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and the Carolinas, natural-looking tans, blonde hair, and long lashes with bright statement clothes are necessary for any SEC (Southeastern Conference) woman. In the New York, New Jersey area, the dense population lends itself to the microcosm of global cultures, with different parts of the state or city having their standard of what is deemed beautiful and acceptable.”
Cleary felt, growing up in the South, an intense need to fit into the beauty standard for what was around her, which happened to be tan and blonde with perfect hair that depending on the season or year was either curled or pin straight. Her mother is not one for makeup and did not have the same hair texture as her, so learning how to fit in was a journey Molly ventured on my own. While she was not allowed to dye my hair blonde (which she says agrees with, “it would not have matched my complexion”), Molly used makeup and different hair products to assimilate as much as possible. If she had begun starting to use makeup now, her options for toxic-free products would have more than doubled, starkly increasing over the past ten years, specifically in the growth since 2020, which saw over a 16.5% growth in the “Clean Beauty Market.”
Now, as an adult who is more comfortable than she has ever been in her own skin, Molly has observed how this endless pressure has taken a toll on her, not only mentally but also physically. The products Cleary used to ensure that her appearance would be more "acceptable" to those around her were toxic in every way. When the prospect of taking on both beauty standards and the toxins that come with them was presented, of course, it was an easy decision. Combating this toxicity through legislation, we can set the standard on what is acceptable and choose enforcement procedures.
What this looks like is either one all encapsulating bill, one that attacks the toxins and stops the production in its tracks such as Bill A.B.496 from California, or a suite of bills that chip away at producers' ability to poison our bodies such as a starting point with New Jersey’s Bill S1042 and adding more toxins later. While the latter option is more palatable to both industry and legislators, both options have their merits.
A Call to Action
The intersection of environmental justice and the beauty industry underscores the urgent need for systemic change. From stricter regulations on toxic chemicals to more sustainable non-toxic packaging practices, the path forward requires collaboration between policymakers, communities, and advocates.
As X puts it, “Environmental justice isn’t just about addressing the big polluters; it’s about looking at how every part of our lives—from the air we breathe to the products we use—impacts our right to thrive in a healthy environment. And that fight starts with empowering our communities to demand better.”
By addressing the beauty industry’s impact on health and the environment, we can take a critical step toward a future where justice, safety, and sustainability are the norm for everyone.
