Голливудская актриса Хилари Суонк поддерживает законопроект, обязывающий производителей подгузников раскрывать состав продукции

Hilary Swank’s roles over the years have ranged from a young transgender man to Amelia Earhart and, more recently, a small-town hairdresser. Lately, though, she’s had things on her mind besides acting, like mothering her 3-year-old twins Aya and Ohm and working, as chief innovation officer for the baby product company Healthy Baby, to make sure that parents everywhere have access to safe items for their little ones. It’s why she’s joined an effort to pass California legislation AB 1901, which would require diaper companies to reveal the ingredients in their products, as Swank explained during a virtual press conference to highlight the effort this week. “As diaper changing became one of the biggest parts of our daily lives, I started to wonder, what are these diapers actually made of?” Swank explained in a Zoom for reporters held in partnership with EWG, Consumer Reports, Children Now, Healthy Baby, and California Assembly member and bill sponsor Marc Berman. The actress — who also pushed for law SB 646, which goes into effect next year to bring ingredients transparency to prenatal vitamins — began to research the materials that go into making diapers. She said what she learned in that process “shocked” her — as did the fact that there was no federal law requiring diaper manufacturers to disclose their ingredients. “Diapers can contain thousands — not just a few, but thousands — of different materials and chemicals, including those that can alter a baby’s hormones, harm their nervous system, or make them more susceptible to cancer, reproductive problems, asthma, or severe rashes,” Swank said. While it’s difficult to know all of what goes into a diaper because of the lack of transparency, said EWG senior science analyst Sydney Swanson, ingredients typically include chemicals called phthalates, which are known endocrine disruptors, and VOCs, which can cause respiratory irritation and headaches in the short-term and damage to the kidneys, livers, and nervous systems in the long-term. “Some VOCs, like formaldehyde, are known carcinogens,” she said, while oft-used fragrances and dyes can cause allergic reactions and bleaching agents can cause skin, nose, and throat irritation. “During these precious early years of development, babies absorb everything from the environment around them, and we know that babies are significantly more vulnerable to what surrounds them because their skin is thinner and more permeable than us as adults,” said Swank, noting that Healthy Baby offers the first EWG-verified diaper (containing plant-derived materials, organic cotton, FSC certified pulp, and no harmful chemicals). Further, she explained, “Research shows that about 85% of brain development happens before the age of 5. So, think about this: one million or more neural connections are happening per second in a baby’s brain during the two million minutes that they sit in a diaper.” The bipartisan bill, said EWG’s Susan Little, is “really gaining steam,” with over 300 organizations that have signed on to lobby state representatives. Berman, a new dad, said during the press conference that he’d never given much thought to what goes into a diaper until his son was about four months old. That’s when he went to look on the diaper box for ingredients that “weren’t there.” The bill, AB1901, “will fix that,” he said, as it would require manufacturers to fully disclose ingredients on packaging and in more detail online. Healthy Baby founding CEO Shazi Visram, who changed the baby food industry with Happy Baby, said that, “from an industrial standpoint, this is very possible.” Further, she said, “AB1901 does not ban ingredients … it simply gives parents access to information that should’ve been available all along.” Recently, Consumer Reports tested 31 diaper brands and found that seven of them disclosed almost nothing at all about materials used. “Parents deserve better than a guessing game,” Berman said, “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 or three years of their lives.”