Codsall sisters’ fight for clearer labels after near-death experience
A near-death experience has inspired two sisters to begin a campaign for better allergen labelling on beauty products.
Emelia Brain from Codsall suffered a life-threatening allergic reaction to a bath bomb, with the 13-year-old being saved through her family's quick reactions and a blue-lighted trip to hospital.
After making a full recovery, Emelia and her eight-year-old sister Elisia decided to begin the campaign for better labelling.
Calling themselves "The Allergy Adventure Sisters", they are petitioning Parliament and the Cosmetic Toiletry and Perfumery Association (CPTA) to make it a legal requirement to highlight allergens in bold on all beauty products, and use "plain English", instead of Latin names.
Their mother Maria said she had been surprised to learn how many allergen products there were in beauty products such as bath bombs.
She said: "There's about 26 fragrance allergens currently recognised, but that doesn't include food allergens like eggs and nuts.
"A lot of the time, nuts are labelled in Latin, while eggs are sometimes listed with a derivative name, so you can check them, but not know the meaning of it.
"What the girls are hoping to achieve is for allergens to be listed in bold, just as they are in the food industry."
Change
Mrs Brain said the girls, who both have multiple allergies including asthma, wanted the experience that Emelia had had to help implement the necessary change and make it a law to add the correct information.
She said the girls had been surprised by the number of people who had signed the petition, with more than 21,000 people signing it, and said she was very proud of what they had done.
She said: "Emelia just wants to raise awareness for people who have allergies just like her to show you can live a full life and there are always alternatives.
"They do so much on their social media channels to raise awareness and they have such a large following in the allergen community.
"They've met lots of people from around the world and they make such a difference, including with the bath bomb company who now clearly mark out the allergens on the box."
To find out more and to sign the petition, go to change.org/p/uk-parliament-all-allergens-to-be-listed-in-bold-on-beauty-products-and-in-plain-english-including-top-14
