Experiential class may spawn product-safety experts of tomorrow

Books of law revolve around the products we put on our skin.A little-known course at Georgetown Law teaches the fundamentals of the ever-growing body of regulatory law that governs the things we put in and on our bodies.  The class, which will be offered next semester for the third year, is called “Consumer Advocacy and Government Regulation: Personal-Care Products and Dietary Supplements.”

The class was started in large part thanks to the pioneering investigative journalist Toni Stabile.  Her 1966 exposé, Cosmetics: Trick or Treat, brought public scrutiny to an industry that had long existed in a regulatory void.  The book’s popularity helped lead to a Senate hearing on the matter and initiated a wave of new regulation.  Because Georgetown Law offered a similar class for a period in the 1970’s, Stabile was able to use material generated by Georgetown law students who were researching the industry’s regulatory woes.  

Over 40 years later, Stabile wanted to repay the favor and see the GULC experiential program revived.  She reached out to Professor Joseph Page, the same professor who taught the original 70’s class.  Stabile underwrote the experiential class and a fellowship for Georgetown grads who want to start their careers in regulatory or administrative law by protecting consumers at the Environmental Working Group (EWG).  The course is co-taught by five professors; Page, the current Stabile Fellow Etan Yeshua, last year’s fellow and faculty adjunct Thomas Cluderay, and Professors Allison Zieve and Heather White.  

The 4-credit course is part seminar and part internship.  Students meet 1-2 times a week for a crash course on product safety regulation while working off-campus with one of three participating public-interest organizations.  Current participants include EWG, Public Citizen, and the Center for Science in the Public Interest.   While the internship is pass/fail, the 2-credit seminar is graded through an exam and a final paper.

Erika Duthley took the course last year and focused on “natural, green, and organic” cosmetics.  She found that the niche was “almost completely unregulated.”  As part the class, she drafted policy recommendation letters to organizations such as the FTC, the FDA and the EPA.  In part because of her experience with the class and EWG, Duthley went on to pursue a career in consumer protection.

Another graduate of the course, Meagan Singer, studied the new trend of “Brazillian Blowout”-style keratin hair treatments, which often expose users and hair-stylist to dangerous amounts of formaldehyde.  “It was actually really fascinating,” says Singer, now a 3L, describing the dangerous products that slip through the regulatory cracks: “things that burn your skin, cause permanent damage and baldness, skin care products that left permanent disfigurement, all because there is no regulatory agency that tests these products before they go on the market.”

Yeshua, the current Stabile Fellow, said the job prospects are good for students interested in becoming product-safety gadflies or private sector representatives.   He says the staggering pace of globalization has made it difficult for the government to regulate the import products that enter the US market every year.  When the FDA and other agencies struggle to keep up, civil society groups like EWG continue to research and advocate for consumer health and safety.

Find more information on this experiential offering in GULC’s course catalogue, under J.D. Seminar 522. 

by John Thompson