We conducted a survey among Mount Holyoke students. The main purposes of the survey were to investigate the level of awareness about possible hazards of toxic chemicals in cosmetics and buying behaviors of cosmetics. The survey was taken in Blanchard Campus Center on Friday, the 17th and Saturday, the 18th of November. Blanchard Campus Center, a gathering place for the entire MHC community, is a perfect site for this project since there is access to a large population of our community in a relaxed mood. We originally considered taking the survey via email; however, we thought that the direct interactions would be more preferable and efficient for the fundamental purpose of this action project: to increase awareness and spread knowledge. Thus, we attempted to simultaneously initiate conversations with examinees while they took a survey so that we could educate them in an active manner. We designed a survey form which consisted of five sections.

In the first section, we asked survey takers to name hair care products that they commonly used. The second section inquired what other products they used on a regular basis and what influenced them in purchasing cosmetic products. Further, we asked if they looked at ingredients and whether or not  they could recall any natural cosmetic brands.

In these first three sections, we attempted to determine the level of MHC students' awareness of cosmetic ingredients and their consuming behavior. In section four, students were asked about their knowledge of chemicals and their potential health hazard. In this section, we also expected to see how much students trusted the FDA by asking what percentage of the chemicals were tested for safety by FDA. The last part was to see if they were willing to acquire further knowledge of cosmetics and chemicals. We also asked the subject's major and class year to investigate if there was the difference in people in various major and class years.

Next -- Survey Results