Think of your morning routine. How many products do you use to get ready in the morning? Shampoo and conditioner? Shaving cream? Moisturizer? What did you put in your hair, and did you use makeup? Did you remember the deodorant?

So, what’s your number? According to the Campaign for Safer Cosmetics, it is likely your number is around 12 if you’re a woman and six if you’re a man.

Have you ever thought about what’s in those products? There are more than 10,000 chemical ingredients in personal care products, and of those 10,000, only 11 percent have undergone safety testing.

Think that you’re safe because you only use products that are labeled “natural” or “organic?” Not so fast; it turns out that is not enough, because the truth-in-advertising rules that apply to products like food, do not apply to personal care cosmetics. That means companies can slap an “organic” label on a bottle of anything, no matter what it contains.

This is why customers need help. No matter how vigilant you are when shopping and how much you research, the only way for us to truly know that the items we are slathering on our bodies are safe is for the makers to make it that way.

Johnson & Johnson— the maker of a number of highly popular skin care brands including Aveeno, Neutrogena, RoC , Clean & Clear and Lubriderm — is doing just that. Since 2010, Johnson & Johnson has reduced the number of its products that contain formaldehyde by 33 percent and those containing 1,4 dioxane by 74 percent, and it has pledged to make all of its baby products free of these chemicals by 2013.

Now, thanks to continued pressure from the members of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, the company has agreed to go even further. According to an interview in yesterday’s Associated Press, Johnson & Johnson has now pledged to remove toxic chemicals from all of its products — those for adults and children — by 2015. This decision, which is explained on the Company’s new Safety & Care website, includes a commitment to:

• Reduce 1,4 dioxane to a maximum of 10 parts per million in adult products;
• Phase out formaldehyde-releasers in adult products;
• Limit parabens in adult products to methyl-, ethyl- and propyl-;
• Complete phase-out of triclosan from all products;
• Phase out Diethyl Phthalate (DEP) from all products (no other phthalates are currently used);
• Phase out polycyclic musks, animal derived ingredients, tagates, rose crystal and diacetyl from fragrances.

We applaud Johnson & Johnson for taking this step, and we urge more companies to join them.

We also congratulate all of the organizations that are working with the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. These organizations have worked hard for many years to convince Johnson & Johnson, and other companies, to make this important change, a change that has been shown to make customers safer while creating jobs, increasing profits and encouraging brand loyalty for companies.

This is a great victory, and I will certainly appreciate having one less thing to think about in the morning.