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While ingredient lists are mandatory for nearly all baby products, diaper manufacturers are curiously exempt from disclosing what their nappies are made of.Now, a California lawmaker is making it his mission to ensure parents are informed and companies are held accountable.
“Parents deserve better than a guessing game, especially when it comes to a product that will be touching their baby’s skin for every minute of every day for the first two years of their lives,” said assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park).Berman is the force behind AB 1901, a proposed consumer safety and transparency law that would require diaper manufacturers to disclose all intentionally added ingredients in their products both online and on packaging.In May, AB 1901 passed the state Assembly by a 68-1 vote and is now being considered in the state Senate.The legislation grew out of Berman’s own experience.After the birth of his son, he began researching what baby products were and were not safe and was aghast to discover that diapers were not held to the same standard as other products.“I went and looked at the box in our garage, and there wasn’t anything on there,” Berman said.
On Tuesday, A-list actor Hillary Swank joined Berman and other advocates in advance of a key Senate committee vote.Swank, a mother of 3-year-old twins and chief innovation officer for HealthyBaby, a non-toxic diaper brand, echoed Berman’s experience.“As diaper changing became one of the biggest parts of our daily lives, I started to wonder, what are these diapers actually made of?” she said.
Consumer Reports, which co-sponsored the latest legislation, said it recently analyzed the ingredient list for 31 brands of disposable diapers.Of these, only two disclosed every or nearly every material, while seven additional manufacturers provided minimal information about product materials.
“Parents deserve to know which chemicals companies are putting in diapers, so they can make informed choices abo...