Congress ordered the FDA to write an asbestos testing standard for talc cosmetics. The agency proposed one in December 2024 and withdrew it in November 2025. Here’s what the testing has found in the meantime.
Nobody defines it. Two brands using the phrase can mean opposite things, because one has removed synthetics and the other has kept them and disclosed them. Which is better depends on a question most people haven’t been asked.
On July 31 this year, a European rule expanding the list of fragrance allergens that must be named on a label came into force. The FDA was supposed to have its own version by December. It missed the deadline.
Perfume is the one product that legally hides its whole ingredient list behind a single word. Here are the clean fragrance and natural perfume brands that actually tell you what you’re spraying on.
A 1000-thread-count sheet is often four-ply yarn counted four times. The number that actually predicts how sheets feel and how long they last is printed far less often, and it isn’t a number at all.
The finish that keeps sheets crisp out of the dryer is a resin that slowly gives off formaldehyde. There’s no federal limit on how much can be in a textile sold in the US, and no requirement to tell you it’s there.
One certifies that the fiber was grown organically and the people making it were treated fairly. The other tests the finished fabric for harmful substances and says nothing about either. Brands let you assume they’re interchangeable.
You breathe your sheets in for eight hours a night, so what they’re made of matters. Here are the organic bedding brands worth buying, vetted on certified fibers, fair labor, and finishes.
A strawberry protein powder can legally contain no strawberry. The sweetener you’re avoiding sugar with reaches your colon largely intact. Neither is a scandal, and both are worth understanding before you buy a year’s supply.
Any brand can pay a lab, get a result it likes, and print the phrase. The marks that mean something are named, and they check three different things people constantly mix up.