Tone Fruit Peel

Alright...  I don't mean to keep on about this subject, but I have a little bit of a rant. 

Do you read the label on your body wash before you buy it?   

I didn't think so.

I don't either.

I am always grabbing the newest fruity scent from whatever brand I like...  and Tone is always coming out with fun new body washes.  So when I spotted their new "Fruit Peel" daily exfoliating body wash, I just picked it up, opened the lid to smell it, and threw it in the cart.  So I'm in the shower the other day and for whatever reason, I flip the bottle over, and start looking at the back:

Sunburn Alert:  This product contains an alpha hydroxy acid (AHA) that may increase your skin's sensitivity to the sun and particularly the possibility of sunburn.

Really?!

Let's refer back to those statistics from The Skin Cancer Foundation: 

• Melanoma is the most common form of cancer for young adults 25-29 years old and the second most common form of cancer for young people 15-29 years old.
• The incidence of many common cancers is falling, but the incidence of melanoma continues to rise at a rate faster than that of any of the seven most common cancers.  Between 1992 and 2004, melanoma incidence increased 45 percent.
• About 65 percent of melanoma cases can be attributed to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun.
• The survival rate for patients whose melanoma is detected early, before the tumor has penetrated the skin, is about 99 percent.  The survival rate falls to 15 percent for those with advanced disease.

Just to be clear on that last one... that means 85 out of every 100 people who don't get that bad mole checked out in time, do NOT survive.

According to the FDA's website, products containing AHAs are marketed for a variety of purposes, such as smoothing fine lines and surface wrinkles, improving skin texture and tone, unblocking and cleansing pores, and improving skin condition in general.  We're talking skin peels, or products to try to correct a certain issue, like wrinkles.  Tone's Fruit Peel is just a body wash... something that we all use, and probably for more reasons than just vanity. 

I'll give them credit where credit is due.  According to the FDA's website, they recommend (not "require") that the labeling of a cosmetic product that contains an AHA as an ingredient and that is topically applied to the skin have a warning label such as the one stated here.  And I understand that this company can make whatever it wants to, and no one is twisting my arm and forcing me to buy it.  I also know that lots of products contain AHA's.  But shame on a company that creates a product marketed to a certain demographic that has the potential to make that consumer more susceptible to that group's most common and very deadly form of cancer.  Shame on them for putting a warning label on the back, with the ingredients, in a font as small and unnoticeable as possible, where most people will never see it.  Shame on them for launching this new product in the spring, just before we're really out there being exposed to the sun.  Our beauty products should be promoting womens' health, not tricking women into purchasing products that can help destroy it. 

I've been trying so hard to remember to wear sunscreen.  I have sworn never to lay in a tanning bed again.  And then I wind up buying this stupid body wash.  So I've been steamed about this for a few days, and just needed to put this out there.