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The Toxic Files - Are Your Beauty Products Killing You?
Are Your Beauty Products Killing You?
By Matt Wheeland, AlterNet.
But it's not just VO5 that could make you sick. Try Secret Sheer Dry deodorant, or the suitably named Poison, a perfume by Christian Dior. In fact, 52 popular cosmetics are now proven to have toxic components in varying concentrations -- and they're all over the place.
A report released jointly July 10 by Coming Clean, the Environmental Working Group and Health Care Without Harm details the extent to which a toxic family of chemicals known as phthalates (THAY-lates) are used in everyday household products, especially beauty products like nail polish, lipstick and perfumes.
The report, titled "Not Too Pretty: Pthalates, Beauty Products and the FDA," has its basis in a 1999 FDA study of toxins in the general population of the U.S. From a sample of 1,029 people, every one of them tested positive for phthalates in their blood or urine. Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control singled out a subgroup of 289 people with a particularly high incidence of phthalates: women of childbearing age. These women were found to have daily exposures of phthalates ranging from 2.5 to 22 times the normal for the rest of the general population, with 5 percent showing levels of 75 percent or higher of the acceptable daily amounts.
Judging from the 5 percent of women with dangerously high test results, it can be assumed that every day, as many as two million women of childbearing age are exposed to toxic levels of phthalates.
Phthalates have been shown to cause a wide array of health problems, from liver and kidney failure to heart, lung and blood pressure problems. The most worrisome aspect by far is the phthalates' effect on the reproductive development of fetuses and infants, particularly the reproductive tracts of males.
Phthalates are metabolized in humans once ingested or absorbed through the skin. In pregnant women, phthalates pass through the placenta to be absorbed by the fetus. In nursing women, phthalates are found in breast milk, which means infants are ingesting these chemicals as they develop. In male fetuses -- and infants especially -- the phthalates have been shown to cause testicular atrophy and a reduced sperm count, among other serious health problems.
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Bar Soap
The following are excerpts from the Environmental Working Group
Areas of Health Concern: Bar Soap
Cancer: 27% of products (39) may pose cancer risks.
- 27% of products (39) contain(s) ingredients that are(is) possible human carcinogen(s). (Butylated hydroxytoluene, Polyethylene, Titanium dioxide, Triethanolamine)
Harmful Impurities 35% of products (51) may contain harmful impurities linked to cancer or other health problems.
- 10% of products (14) contain(s) ingredients that may contain impurities linked to breast cancer. (PEG-16 soy sterol, PEG-6, PEG-8, Petrolatum)
Penetration Enhancers: 36% of products (52) contain(s) penetration enhancers that increase exposures to carcinogens and other ingredients of concern. (disodium EDTA, lecithin, menthol, propylene glycol, sodium laureth sulfate, sodium lauroyl sarcosinate, tetrasodium EDTA, trisodium EDTA, trisodium HEDTA)
Unstudied Ingredients: 100% of products (144) contain ingredients contain(s) unstudied ingredient(s) or ingredient(s) with insufficient data.
- 100% of products (144) contain ingredients are unstudied for use by industry safety panel, the Cosmetic Ingredient Review. (phosphoric acid ... %, Polyethylene, Silica, sodium hydroxide, Talc, Titanium dioxide)
Unstudied Ingredients: 1 product contains ingredients the cosmetic industry safety panel had insufficient testing data to support the ingredients' safe use in cosmetics. (azulene)
Allergies: 60% of products (87) contain ingredients that are allergens. (fragrance)
Other Health Concerns: 33% of products (48) pose(s) other potential health concerns. (magnesium silicate, magnesium stearate, methylparaben, nonoxynol-12, PEG-6, PEG-8, propylene glycol, propylparaben, sodium myreth sulfate, sodium stearate)
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Breast cancer and impurities.
EWG's assessment of product ingredient labels and data on cancer-causing chemicals identified three common impurities in personal care products that are linked to mammary tumors in animal studies — ethylene oxide, PAHs, and 1,3-butadiene. The ingredients for which these impurities are of concern are used in one of every four personal care products on the market (Table 4).
Among girls born today, one in eight is expected to get breast cancer and one in 30 is expected to die from it (NCI 1996, 1997, 2000). A review by scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory shows that as many as one of every five chemical carcinogens causes mammary tumors in laboratory studies, indicating that the breast is more sensitive to carcinogens than almost any other tissue in the body (Gold et al. 1991). EWG's identification of three impurities linked to breast cancer does not represent a full accounting of possible mammary carcinogens in personal care products. Instead, it is a partial accounting based on the National Toxicology Program's assessment of mammary carcinogens (NTP 2000) and other sources in the peer-reviewed literature. Further study would likely identify additional ingredients in personal care products that raise concerns with respect to breast cancer.
• PAHs. PAHs, or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, are common contaminants in petrolatum, also called petroleum jelly and sold under well-known brand names like Vaseline. Petrolatum is found in one of every 14 products on the market (7.1 percent of the products assessed by EWG), including 15 percent of all lipstick and 40 percent of al baby lotions and oils. FDA restricts petrolatum in food to no more than 10 parts per million, and requires petrolatum used in food packaging or drugs to meet impurity restrictions for PAHs (21 CFR 178, 21 CFR 172.880). But the agency allows any amount of petrolatum of any purity in personal care products, many of which are applied directly to the lips and swallowed. Manufacturers would find no legal impediments to using the same unregulated petrolatum in personal care products as can be used in shoe polish.
Among the studies linking the petrolatum impurity PAHs to breast cancer is a Columbia University study in which researchers found that the breast tissue of women with breast cancer was 2.6 times more likely to contain elevated levels of PAHs bound to DNA (called DNA adducts) than the breast tissue of women without breast cancer (Rundle et al. 2000). The National Toxicology Programs finds that some PAHs are reasonable anticipated to be human carcinogens, and the State of California lists a number of PAHs as carcinogens in its Proposition 65 program (NTP 2002, OEHHA 2004).
Petrolatum is listed as a probable human carcinogen in the European Union's Dangerous Substances Directive (UNECE 2004), and its use in cosmetics will be banned by September 2004 with the following caveat: “The classification as a carcinogen need not apply if the full refining history is known and it can be shown that the substance from which it is produced is not a carcinogen.” Chemical industry sources have interpreted this clause to mean that petrolatum will continue to be allowed in cosmetics in the EU if it is refined and meets PAH purity standards for food set by FDA (Faust and Casserly 2003). Even this purity standard does not set direct limits on PAH content, but instead relies on a light absorption test as an indirect indicator of contamination.
In the U.S. no requirement for refinement applies for petrolatum in personal care products. Some manufacturers likely choose refined petrolatum low in PAHs, but perhaps some do not. Product labels do not uniformly show the “USP” certification on the petrolatum listing in EWG's ingredient label database, and in any event, the certification criteria for a USP listing are not public. Some product labels include the term “skin protectant” in parentheses after the petrolatum listing, an indication that the petrolatum has been refined and meets FDA requirements for drug applications. But in most cases a consumer buying a product containing petrolatum has no way to know if the ingredient is low in carcinogenic PAHs or not.
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The Ugly Side of Pretty
By Rebecca Ephraim, Dragonfly Media. Posted April 6, 2005.
"I don't pay much attention to the ingredient lists, I just know what works for me," said Shelley Carpenter, when asked what she looks for in her personal care products. Thinking a little harder, she adds, "I'm allergic to most perfumes, so I stay away from smelly stuff. But I couldn't pin it down." This begs the question, "Who can?" After all, how many of us have the time or inclination to scour the ingredient lists of our moisturizer, deodorant, body lotion and any of the other products we slather on daily?
Carpenter, 45, bases her choices of personal body care products primarily on how her skin immediately reacts to them, and second to that, their functionality. Her skin, beautifully clear and alabaster, erupts into a red, scaly rash at the slightest provocation and she's aware from years of trial and error that certain products set this in motion.
But beyond skin eruptions and rashes, emerging science suggests that untold numbers of cosmetics and personal care ingredients may be silently and insidiously promoting cancer, ravaging women's reproductive functions and causing birth defects. Known by hundreds of long, intimidating chemical names, these ingredients are in the products we shower and bathe with, rub, spray and dab on our bodies, unconsciously, day-in-and-day-out.
It's the day-in-and-day-out part that's of most concern, since these toxic ingredients leak their poisons through our porous skin and into our bodies bit-by-bit. "There's not one smoking gun that we can point to and say 'it's that personal care product, that deodorant, that nail polish that is going to give you cancer," said Jeanne Rizzo, the executive director of the San Francisco-based Breast Cancer Fund. "We can say the cumulative exposure -- the aggregate exposure that we all have to a myriad of personal care products containing carcinogens, mutagens and reproductive toxins, has not been assessed."
Categorically, the giant, mainstream personal care products companies continue to use known or suspected toxic ingredients in their product formulas. There are literally thousands of substances that have been used for decades without the slightest hint to consumers that they may be doing something more than making us squeaky clean and smell good. As activist Charlotte Brody points out, "Neither cosmetic products nor cosmetic ingredients are reviewed or approved by the Food and Drug Administration before they are sold to the public. And the FDA cannot require companies to do safety testing of their cosmetic products before marketing."
Hence, chemicals such as acrylamide (in foundation, face lotion and hand cream) linked to mammary tumors in lab research; formaldehyde (found in nail polish and blush) classified as a probable human carcinogen by the Environmental Protection Agency; and dibutyl phthalate (an industrial chemical commonly found in perfume and hair spray) known to damage the liver, kidney and reproductive systems, disrupt hormonal processes and increase breast cancer risk, are widely used in beauty products.
So should Shelley Carpenter be aware of this? She's certainly no slouch. She's a clinical hospital pharmacist advising doctors on the complex nuances of drug therapies; she's also working on her doctorate in pharmacy while being a mom and wife. Point is, like most of us, she's over-extended and assumes -- like most of us, that whatever personal care products we casually grab off the store shelf must be OK or, well, they wouldn't be sold. In other words, we think, "There's somebody watching out for us, probably some government agency."
"The public, bless our little democratic good government hearts, believes that there is some federal agency that makes sure that dangerous chemicals aren't put into the products we put all over ourselves. Sadly, it's just not true," quips Brody, who's executive director of Commonweal. It, along with Rizzo's Breast Cancer Fund and dozens of other social profit groups, are waging the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. They're banging the drum to rouse consumers from our slumber of ignorance to realize the dangers lurking in personal care products and the failure -- or refusal -- of any power to change it.
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The Ugly Side of Pretty
By Rebecca Ephraim, Dragonfly Media. Posted April 6, 2005.
The Innocents and the Knowing
But to understand this, we need to go to Europe for some perspective. The European Union (EU), with its 25 member countries, is taking a more enlightened (or a less Draconian) approach to protecting its 450 million people from toxins in personal care products. As of this March, an EU "Cosmetics Directive," will require companies doing business in Europe to eliminate chemicals in personal care products known or strongly suspected of causing "harm to human health." Although there are thousands of questionable chemicals, the directive is targeting about 450, which is huge compared to the nine chemicals that the FDA has banned or restricted in personal care products.
The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has seized upon the EU's Cosmetic Directive and is urging consumers to sign a petition that asks U.S. companies to commit to meeting the same standards as their European counterparts and then beyond. So far, some 50 companies have signed the campaign's compact -- all of them are natural products companies. Not one single, large, mainstream company has stepped forward, according to Janet Nudelman, coordinator of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. "We've had dozens of conversations with these companies and they are absolutely unwilling to admit there's a single chemical that represents harm or could be harmful to consumers in their products," Nudelman said.
Problem is, they don't have to. Major loopholes in federal law allow the $35 billion cosmetics industry to, basically, police itself, allowing unlimited amounts of chemicals into personal care products with no required testing, no monitoring of health effects and inadequate labeling requirements.
"The U.S. government, in relation to the FDA, has not been on the side of consumers and has not been on the side of public health," Nudelman said. "We certainly see that when we see industry representatives serving on government panels that are looking to the very issue that they are supposed to be regulating -- and that is consumer safety. Is the fox guarding the hen house? Yeah, absolutely in the U.S. without question."
However, consumers increasingly have a safe option in those "natural products" companies that have signed the Safe Cosmetics compact pledging to eliminate any questionable chemicals in the personal care products they sell. "The natural products companies may not be all pure and 100 percent where it is we want them to be, but the important thing is that they want to be there, and they're committed to getting there," Nudelman said. "We're talking about literally a massive reformulation on the part of many of these companies in order to meet the core components [of the compact]."
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Here's How to Check for Toxins in Your Products
By Rebecca Ephraim, Dragonfly Media. Posted April 6, 2005. From 'The Ugly Side of Pretty'.
In a massive undertaking, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) analyzed the health and safety reviews of 10,000 ingredients in personal care products. The EWG discovered that there is scant research available to document the safety or health risks of low-dose repeated exposures to chemical mixtures. But the absence of data should never be mistaken for proof of safety. The EWG points out that the more we study low-dose exposures, the more we understand that they can cause adverse effects ranging from the subtle and reversible, to effects that are more serious and permanent.
Based on that, the EWG has developed Skin Deep, a sophisticated online rating system that ranks brand-name products on their potential health risks and the absence of basic safety evaluations. To try out its usefulness, we ran a list of the personal care products that Shelley Carpenter uses. Six of the approximately 10 products she applies daily were recognized and scored. Among those was one product that may pose cancer risks and three products with ingredients that may contain impurities linked to breast cancer; another two, called "penetration enhancers," increase exposure to other products that are carcinogenic, six of the products contain ingredients that are unstudied or lack sufficient safety data and, despite Carpenter's efforts to avoid them, one product contains ingredients that are allergens. On a scale of one to 10, with 10 being of the highest health concern, Carpenter's score was a 6.7. What's yours?
Janet Nudelman, of the Safe Cosmetics Campaign, says she uses Skin Deep regularly to look up ingredients in personal care products to get a safety reading -- and make a purchase decision based on the results. "Consumers have real power they are not exercising," she said. "We need to let cosmetic companies know we're going to not buy their products unless they make a strong unwavering commitment to safety."
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