Personal Care Products Alert

 When most Americans shop for their personal care products they just assume that the government would not allow potentially toxic products to be part of our face creams, make-up, or even baby oil, right?   Often nurses are asked by pregnant women whether they should continue to dye, straighten, or perm their hair.  Whether their patients are pregnant or not, what do most nurses even know about the health risks posed by personal care products – the chemicals that we regularly spray and slather on our hair and body.   The story about many personal care products is just “not so pretty”.

The very same chemicals that are found in many personal of care products are also used in heavy manufacturing industries to grease gears, stabilize pesticides and soften plastics.  While we might assume that exposures in the manufacturing industry could pose a health risk, we probably don¹t assume that our daily toiletries could also pose risks.  Yet one third of personal care products contain one or more ingredients linked to cancer, and 45 percent of all products contain ingredients that may pose reproductive and developmental risks.

• According to industry estimates, on any given day a consumer may use as many as 25 different cosmetic products containing more than 200 different chemical compounds.
• 89% of 10,500 ingredients used in personal care products have not been screened for safety by the FDA or any other publicly accountable institution.
• 99% of all products have one or more ingredients that have never been publicly assessed for safety, raising questions and concerns for consumers who need to know their products are safe.
• One of every ten ingredients approved for use by the Cosmetics Industry Review shows some evidence of reproductive toxicity in laboratory studies. (Linked to birth defects, damaged sperm, and/or infertility.)
  Skin Deep Report   http//www.ewg.org/skindeep/
The chemicals in any one consumer product alone are unlikely to cause harm but, unfortunately, we are repeatedly exposed to potentially harmful chemicals from many different sources in our air, water, food, and other products.  Body burden studies have shown that many of these chemicals are now residing in our bodies, our breastmilk, and even in fetal cord blood.  Some chemicals found in a variety of cosmetics - including phthalates, acrylamide, and formaldehyde - are listed by government and academic sources as reproductive toxins.
The safety review for cosmetics is provided by the Cosmetic Ingredient Review Panel of the Cosmetic, Toiletry, and Fragrance Association - the trade association representing the manufacturing companies of cosmetics.  Unlike the government’s rigorous review of drugs as they are brought to market, there is no governmental or independent scientific oversight of the ingredients in cosmetics as they are brought to market.
Major loopholes in federal law prevent the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or any other government agency from approving the safety of cosmetics and body care products before they can be sold. There is no federal regulatory agency that requires testing or monitoring of health effects associated with cosmetic-related exposures.  The labeling is completely inadequate for informing us about potential health risks that might be posed by the ingredients. The Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act has over 340 pages pertaining to food and drugs and 1 ½ pages pertaining to cosmetic safety.  As per the statute, the Food and Drug Administration “cannot require companies to do safety testing of their cosmetic products before marketing.”  (FDA:   http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/cos-206.html   Further, the “FDA does not have the authority to require manufacturers to register their cosmetic establishments, file data on ingredients, or report cosmetic-related injuries.”  (http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/cos-206.html)

The cosmetics industry often defends the safety of products by arguing that only a small amount of the chemicals is absorbed into the body.  But these estimates do not account for the common use of penetration enhancing chemicals, which are present in 56 percent of all products and can drive other ingredients faster and deeper into the skin, where they can ultimately be absorbed systemically ((Skin Deep, Accessed July 10, 2006: http://www.ewg.org/skindeep).

Top ingredients of concern in Skin Deep:
Known and probable carcinogens
Acrylamide
Coal tar
Ethylacrylate
Formaldehyde
HC Blue 2
Lead acetate
Phenacetin
Phenolphthalein
Phenylphenol
Potassium dichromate
Progesterone
Selenium sulfide Known and probable reproductive and developmental toxins
Lithium carbonate
Dibutyl phthalate
Toluene
Lead acetate
Potassium dichromate
Butoxyethanol
Dimethicone triethanolamine
Diethanolamine
Cetyl phosphate
Diglycol-cyclohexanedimethanol

Skin Deep Report   http://www.ewg.org/reports/skindeep2/findings/index.php?content=findings_ingreds_of_concern#begin
In 1933, Kallett and Schlink wrote the national bestselling book: 100,000,000 Guinea Pigs Dangers in Everyday Foods, Drugs, and Cosmetics and charged that foods, drugs and cosmetics contained dangerous chemical additives or residues that were being "tested" on the entire population of the U.S., which at the time was 100 million people and is now nearly 300 million.  On the heels of this publication, a new consumer movement emerged in the U.S.   In 1936, a band of professors, labor leaders, journalists, and engineers, along with Kallett and Schlink, founded Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports (which originally had a circulation of 4,000 and now is one of the largest magazines in the country with a readership of 5 million).  Another century-old publication, Facts and Frauds in Woman's Hygiene, described some of the risks associated with personal care products and demanded both pre-market testing, as well as informative labeling.  While much progress has occurred in the realm of food and drug regulations, not much has happened with cosmetics.
Flash forward a century: A new consumer movement, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, has emerged and it is specifically addressing concerns about the health risk associated with cosmetics. (See: www.safecosmetics.org)  Its goal is to: Protect the health of consumers and workers by calling on the body care products industry to phase out the use of chemicals linked to cancer, birth defects and other health harms and replace them with safer alternatives.   This certainly sounds like a campaign that nurses might want to support.   Via letters to 250 of the top cosmetic companies, the Campaign has asked cosmetics companies to sign the Compact for Safe Cosmetics, a pledge to phase out hazardous chemicals and replace them with safer alternatives within three years. To date 385 forward thinking cosmetic companies, from Burt’s Bees to the Body Shop have signed the pledge.  None of the cosmetic industry giants have signed the Compact yet, though due to pressure from the Campaign, L’Oreal, Revlon, Estee Lauder and others have agreed to globally reformulate their products to meet the European Union’s higher safety standard. To read the full Compact and for a full list of Compact signers, visit www.safecosmetics.org.

The European Union (EU) amended its Cosmetics Directive which now requires cosmetics companies to remove reproductive toxins, mutagens and carcinogens from personal care products.  The European Union now bans more than 1,100 chemicals from personal care products because they may cause cancer, birth defects, or reproductive problems. In stark contrast, just nine chemicals are banned from cosmetics in the United States.  
In 2004, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics founding partner, the Environmental Working Group launched a searchable database called “Skin Deep” to help educate consumers.  This is the only aggregated source of information on cosmetic safety available to the public.  It inventories more than 14,000 products and has had over 10 million hits to website so far.  In addition to the Skin Deep website, the National Library of Medicine has some information on personal care products on its Household Products site: http://householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov/products.htm.
The goal of the Campaign is an excellent example of the precautionary principle in action.  The cosmetics industry can serves as example of an industry adopting precautionary policies and moving us toward a new clean, green, safe, sustainable and successful model of doing business.
What you can do:
LEARN MORE, TAKE ACTION: Visit www.SafeCosmetics.org   Find out if your favorite products contain hazardous chemicals and find safer alternatives.  Give the Cosmetics Companies a Makeover. Sign a petition to the cosmetics industry, it’s an easy way to let the big companies know you want safe products.
TELL YOUR COSMETICS COMPANIES YOU WANT SAFE PRODUCTS.  Contact the companies that have not signed the Compact for Safe Cosmetics, a pledge to phase out toxic chemicals. Call them, write them, email them to let them know you want safe products now! Look on product packaging for a customer service hotline or website.
CHECK THE SAFETY OF YOUR PRODUCTS.  Visit EWG’s interactive product safety guide at www.ewg.org/skindeep.
SPREAD THE WORD    Tell your friends, family, and patients about how they can learn more about safer products and smarter laws to protect our health from toxic chemicals.