Whether it's how much lead can be found in lipstick tubes or making sure all the ingredients are listed on the latest thigh cream or self-tanning products to avoid possible allergic reactions, health and safety regulations are key for cosmetics and other products consumed by the public. Law professors at Georgetown understand that importance.

This month, the Law Center announced a partnership with the Vincent A. Stabile Foundation to endow new programs designed to protect the health and safety of consumers of cosmetics, dietary supplements and related products. The foundation also will provide scholarships for students pursuing public interest law.

“Hopefully, these programs will help strengthen the government’s ability to fulfill legal obligations to protect consumers,” said law professor Joseph Page.
 
Funding from the Stabile Foundation, named after author Toni Stabile’s late brother, will allow the Law Center to re-establish its Lawyering in the Public Interest seminar and resume the work on consumer protection law that began in the early 1970s by Page and his law students.

Back in 1971, Page’s seminar tackled a series of consumer protection issues that ranged from lax regulations on cosmetic production to concerns over cosmetic companies not being required to list ingredients in their products.

“Before (labeling regulations), if you wanted to start making cosmetics in your bathtub, you could, and you didn’t have to tell anyone what was in it,” said Page, who now serves as director of the university’s Center for the Advancement of the Rule of Law in the Americas.

It was Toni Stabile’s 1966 book, "Cosmetics: Trick or Treat?," that inspired Page and his students to examine how cosmetics and grooming products were not required to list their ingredients. Their efforts lead to Food and Drug Administration requirements in labeling disclosures under the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act.

While most cosmetic ingredients are disclosed today, health risks associated with the products still exist. Georgetown and the Stabile Foundation plan to pick up where Page left off by re-establishing the public interest course.

“There are the same problems taking place as there were before,” Page said. “Ingredients in products don’t have to be tested (for consumer safety), and many of the recalls from contaminated products are on a voluntary basis.”

Though Page will be available for consultation, the Lawyering in the Public Interest seminar will become two courses during the 2009-2010 academic year and will be taught by two other professors. The course on the federal regulation of cosmetic safety and grooming products will be taught by Sandra Schubert, an adjunct law professor and director of government affairs for the Washington-based Environmental Working Group. Allison Zieve, adjunct law professor and director of the Washington-based Public Citizen Litigation Group, will teach the course on dietary supplements.

In addition to the courses, the Law Center has introduced the Toni Stabile Postgraduate Fellowship and the Toni Stabile Endowed Scholarship Fund. The fellowship will be awarded annually to recent Law Center graduates pursuing public interest work in consumer protection, while the scholarship will assist students with financial need who plan to pursue careers in public interest law.

“Since Georgetown is ideally situated in the nation’s capital and just blocks from the agencies responsible for protecting American consumers,” Stabile said, “I am encouraged to know that its graduates will carry this work forward.”

-- Kara Tershel

(July 28, 2009)