Conventional Body Care Products Threaten Public Health

>From <www.gristmagazine.com>
June 9, 2004

HAIR-RAISING NEWS
Shampoos and Other Personal Products May Pose Health Risks

Do you know how toxic your shampoo is? Many personal-care products
contain ingredients whose health effects are untested or, worse,
ingredients known to pose health risks or even cause cancer,
according to a new report from the Environmental Working Group and
other nonprofits. Only 11 percent of the 10,500 chemical ingredients
used in personal-care products in the U.S. -- a category that
includes deodorant, toothpaste, and makeup -- have been tested for
safety, and those tests were not overseen by the feds but rather by
an industry scientific review board. EWG found that a number of
shampoos and dark hair dyes contain known or probable human
carcinogens. Most individual ingredients don't pose worrisome risks,
the report says, but because people use many different products each
day -- an average of 10 for U.S. adults -- risks could add up. The
report authors argue that personal-care products should be subjected
to the same sort of testing required for additives and pesticide
residues in food. But until they are, EWG has compiled a product
guide that tells people which products are most safe and which are
best avoided.

straight to the source: Scripps Howard News Service, Joan Lowy, 07 Jun 2004
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=2577>

Cosmetics to dye for?

By JOAN LOWY
Scripps Howard News Service
07-JUN-04

Weak government oversight has allowed industry to market cosmetics and
personal-care products with ingredients whose safety is unclear or which are
known to pose health risks, said a report released Monday by health and
environmental groups.

The Food and Drug Administration doesn't require safety data on ingredients
used in beauty and personal-care products such as shampoos, cosmetics and
hair dyes before they are put on the market, according to a report by the
Environmental Working Group, the Breast Cancer Fund and other
public-interest groups.

A self-policing industry committee, the Cosmetic Ingredient Review, has
tested some ingredients, but the testing is voluntary and controlled by
manufacturers, the report said. Neither the FDA nor the industry safety
panel has evaluated 89 percent of the 10,500 ingredients used in
personal-care products for safety, the report said.

An examination of ingredients listed on the labels of 7,500 such products
found that a third contain one or more ingredients classified by the
government as possibly cancer-causing, the report said.

The FDA estimates there are about 25,000 personal-care products on the
market.

Seventy-seven products examined in the report _ primarily hair dyes and
shampoos _ contain ingredients classified as known or probable human
carcinogens.

Some products contain ingredients that are considered safe in part because
it is assumed they will not be easily absorbed through the skin, the report
said. However, more than half of the products examined also contain
"penetration enhancers" _ ingredients that can increase chemical penetration
through the skin and into the bloodstream, the report said.

Fifty of the products that contain penetration enhancers also contain known
or suspected human carcinogens, the report said.

Few individual ingredients pose excessive risks, but most people use many
products in the course of a day, so it well may be that these risks are
adding up, the report said.

A survey of 2,300 people conducted in conjunction with the report found
that the average adult uses 10 personal-care products each day, exposing
themselves to 146 chemical ingredients. Fully a quarter of all women and 1
of every 6 men use at least 15 products daily, the report said.

"Little research is available to document the safety or health risks of
low-dose repeated exposures to chemical mixtures like those in personal-care
products, but the absence of data should never be mistaken for proof of
safety," the report warns.

"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," the report said.

The Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association said in a press statement
that the FDA has authority to remove unsafe products from the market and
that an FDA regulation "requires manufacturers to substantiate the safety of
cosmetic ingredients and products before they are marketed."

"If there is inadequate safety substantiation, the label must bear a
prominent warning," the association said. "This regulation is a strong
deterrent to the marketing of any cosmetic that has not been adequately
substantiated for safety."

However, any safety testing and reporting by manufacturers to the FDA is
completely voluntary, said Jane Houlihan, vice president of the
Environmental Working Group.

"The problem with this regulatory system is that industry holds all the
cards," Houlihan said. "They decide what 'safe' means. They decide what
tests to do. If FDA believes a product is harming human health, they have to
take legal action to get it off the market and there is a very high burden
of proof."

Other report findings:

_ Nearly 10 percent of all moisturizers and 6 percent of all sunscreens
contain alpha and beta hydroxy acids, which can increase the risk of skin
cancer.

_ At least four ingredients known to interfere _ or suspected of
interfering _ with fetal development and causing declines in sperm counts
are used in nail-care products.

_ Petroleum jelly, which can contain impurities that are listed by
California as carcinogens and have been linked to breast cancer, is used in
7 percent of personal-care products.

_ Fifty-four products contain ingredients that the industry safety panel
recommends against using, including diaper creams with ingredients deemed
unsafe for use in baby products.

On the Net: www.ewg.org

www.ctfa.org

(Contact Joan Lowy at LowyJ(at)SHNS.com. Distributed by Scripps Howard News
Service, http://www.shns.com)
____________________________________________________________________________
Grooming products' contents untested
Nonprofit group urges pre-market checks for safety
By: Jane Kay, San Francisco Chronicle
Tuesday, June 8, 2004

Most ingredients in cosmetics and shampoos are never tested for safety by
any government regulatory agency before they go on the market, according to
an environmental group's review of 7,500 products released Monday.

Personal care products bought by millions of consumers such as lip balm,
eye shadow, shaving cream, deodorant and hair dye -- all easily absorbed
into the skin -- should get the same pre-market testing as additives and
pesticide residues in food, said the nonprofit Environmental Working Group
based in Washington, D.C.

Instead, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration relies, in part, on a self-
policing scientific review board formed by the cosmetics industry in 1976 to
evaluate the safety of ingredients.

"The FDA has no authority under the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act to request
data from manufacturers, or require safety testing of products or
ingredients before marketing,'' said Richard Wiles, senior vice president at
the Environmental Working Group.

"This lack of authority creates a situation where we have unsafe
ingredients in hundreds of commonly used products,'' Wiles said.

The group's report, "Skin Deep," is the largest assessment of chemicals in
cosmetics ever created by a public-interest group. Consumers can use an
online database created by the group to search for safety information on
specific ingredients and products at the group's Web site, www.ewg.org.

Among the ingredients in personal care products, the group found known
carcinogens, reproductive toxicants, harmful impurities and untested
chemicals. The report looked at a variety of products, including face
creams, hair products, makeup, bath oils, hair regrowth and removal
treatments, nail polish and liquid hand soaps.

Of the 10,500 ingredients that the FDA has identified in personal care
products, only 11 percent have been assessed for safety, the report found.
The assessments were overseen not by the FDA but by the Cosmetic Industry
Review board, which is appointed by the Cosmetics, Toiletry and Fragrance
Association in Washington, D.C.

The industry board completed full evaluations of all the ingredients for
only 28 of the 7,500 products on the market, according to the new report.

Known and probable human carcinogens in personal care products include
forms of coal tar, benzyl violet 4B, formaldehyde, lead acetate,
progesterone, selenium sulfide, nitrofurazone and silica, the report found.
Coal tar was exempted from FDA regulation at the time of the passage of the
Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act in 1938.

Some ingredients, the report said, are used in particular ways that are
known to be unsafe:

-- In one case, the label on a "fade cream" containing hydroquinone to
lighten aging spots advises consumers to leave it on the skin, when it
should be washed off immediately, according to the report.

-- A chemical known as ceteareth-20 is recommended for acne treatment, but
the product's label doesn't warn consumers that it shouldn't be used on
damaged skin.

-- Sodium borate and boric acid are used in some diaper rash creams, when
in fact they shouldn't be used at all on infant skin.

-- Iodopropynyl butylcarbamate is used in tanning spray when it's expected
to cause health problems as an aerosol.

At the FDA, Dr. Linda Katz, director of the Office of Cosmetics and Colors,
said the FDA reviews the work of the industry's Cosmetic Ingredient Review
as well as doing its own literature review to ensure that none of the
ingredients in a product is on a list of unsafe chemicals.

The list includes mercury, vinyl chloride, chlorofluorocarbon propellants,
hexachlorophene and some other substances.

Gerald McEwen, a spokesman for the Cosmetics, Toiletry and Fragrance
Association in Washington, D.C., said some of the chemicals on the
Environmental Working Group's list of carcinogens have been carefully
reviewed and allowed by the FDA for use in personal care products.

"The industry takes its responsibility to the consumer very seriously.
Without assurances of safe and quality products, people would not buy the
products,'' said McEwen.

All of the meetings of the Cosmetic Ingredient Review board are open to the
public, and consumers may voice objections to any ingredient, he said.

L'Oreal issued a statement saying it was "constantly monitoring all
literature and studies regarding product safety, and our scientists are
currently evaluating the report issued by the Environmental Working Group.''

At Procter & Gamble, which owns Clairol and Max Factor, spokesman Tim Long
said the FDA has regulatory authority in that it can stop sales or take
products off the market. There is no pre-marketing approval in the way that
there is for drugs, the strictest of FDA's pre-market reviews, he said.

"That's a recognition of the difference in the potential harm that could
come from drugs as compared to cosmetics,'' Long said. "We have a very long
history of safe use of cosmetics in the United States. Therefore, for this
group to make these charges that almost every cosmetic out there is unsafe
is ludicrous and causes consumers to be alarmed unnecessarily.''

E-mail Jane Kay at jkay@sfchronicle.com.
_________________________________________________________

straight to the product guide: Skin Deep
<http://www.ewg.org/reports/skindeep/browse_products.php>