The Albany Gazette - GTFO ("Get the Formaldehyde Out") Campaign Demands Federal Ban on Cancer-Causing Chemicals in Hair Straighteners and Relaxers

LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESS Newswire / March 24, 2026 / GTFO ("Get the Formaldehyde Out") is a bold California Beauty Justice advertising and public education campaign aimed at exposing and eliminating toxic chemicals in beauty and personal care products marketed to Black women and girls. Organized by Breast Cancer Prevention Partners'Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, the GTFO movement is raising public awareness, generating consumer demand for safer products, growing the clean Black beauty market, and advancing policy solutions to reduce the presence of formaldehyde and other hazardous chemicals in Black beauty products - chemicals that are fueling devastating health disparities for Black women.

Backed by seed funding from the Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment, the GTFO campaign is mobilizing consumers, beauty justice advocates, and Black-owned businesses to demand that U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. direct the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to immediately ban cancer-causing formaldehyde in hair relaxers and straighteners - and to expand that ban to address unsafe formaldehyde-releasing chemicals in other hair care and styling products.

To drive public engagement, the campaign has launched a GTFO social media challenge urging the public to send digital letters to RFK Jr. in support of the FDA's proposed ban. One participant will win a Celebrity Makeover with renowned stylist Felicia Leatherwood.

The FDA first announced its intent to ban formaldehyde in hair relaxers and straighteners in October 2023. Since then, the agency has missed its own publicly announced deadline five times - leaving Black women and salon workers continuously exposed to an extremely hazardous chemical.

Formaldehyde is a well-established human carcinogen linked to reproductive harm, infertility, and respiratory damage. Despite decades of scientific evidence, it remains legal in U.S. beauty and personal care products - even as it is already banned in the European Union and multiple states, including California, Maryland, Washington, Oregon, and Vermont. The FDA's repeated delays in implementing its proposed ban are perpetuating preventable health disparities for Black women.

"Studies show that Black women who regularly straighten their hair are 30% more likely to develop breast cancer and face double the risk of uterine cancer. This is unacceptable," said Janet Nudelman, Director of BCPP's Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. "No one should have to choose between beauty and their health - especially Black women, who already experience the highest breast cancer mortality rate of any racial or ethnic group in the United States. Black women deserve safer products. Period. The science is clear. The solutions exist. What's missing is the federal will to act."

Media Contact:

Erika Wilhelm
[email protected]

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About the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics

Breast Cancer Prevention Partners' Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is the original trailblazer of the clean beauty movement. For over 20 years, CSC protects people and the planet from toxic chemicals by: educating the public, transforming the beauty industry to make products safer, and advocating for health-protective laws that benefit everyone regardless of where they live, work, or shop. www.safecosmetics.org

About Breast Cancer Prevention Partners

Breast Cancer Prevention Partners is the only national science-based policy and advocacy organization focused on preventing breast cancer by eliminating our exposure to toxic chemicals. www.bcpp.org

SOURCE: The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

(B.Smith--TAG)