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IN THESE TIMES
Title: "Take a Powder"
Author: Joel Bleifus
Mainstream coverage:
Chicago Tribune, July 29, 1997, Page 3, Zone C
Do you use toothpaste, shampoo, sunscreen, body lotion, body talc, makeup, or
hair dye? These are among the personal care products the American consumer has
been led to believe are safe but that are often contaminated with carcinogenic
byproducts, or that contain substances that regularly react to form potent
carcinogens during storage and use.
Consumers regularly assume that these products are not harmful because they
believe that they are approved for safety by the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA). But although the the FDA classifies cosmetics (dividing them into 13
categories), it does not regulate them. An FDA document posted on the agency's
World Wide Web home page explains that "a cosmetic manufacturer may use any
ingredient or raw material and market the final product without government
approval." (This is with the exception of seven known toxins, such as
hexachlorophene, mercury compounds, and chloroform). Should the FDA deem a
product a danger to public health, it has the power to pull a cosmetic product
from the shelves, but in many of these cases the FDA has failed to do so, while
evidence mounts that some of the most common cosmetic ingredients may double as
deadly carcinogens.
Examples of products with potential carcinogens are: Clairol "Nice and
Easy" haircolor, which releases carcinogenic formaldehyde as well as
Cocamide DEA (a substance which can be contaminated with carcinogenic
nitrosamines or react to produce a nitrosamine during storage or use); Vidal
Sassoon shampoo (which like the hair dye, contains Cocamide DEA); Cover Girl
makeup contains TEA (which is also associated with carcinogenic nitrosamines);
Crest toothpaste which contains titanium dioxide, saccharin, and FD&C Blue #
1 (known carcinogens).
One of the cosmetic toxins that consumer advocates are most concerned about are
nitrosamines, which contaminate a wide variety of cosmetic products. In the
1970s nitrosamine contamination of cooked bacon and other nitrite-treated meats
became a public-health issue, and the food industry, which is more strictly
regulated than the cosmetic industry, has since drastically lowered the amount
of nitrosamines found in these processed meats. But today nitrosamines
contaminate cosmetics at significantly higher levels than were once contained in
bacon.
The FDA has long known that nitrosamines in cosmetics pose a risk to public
health. On April 10, 1979, FDA commissioner Donald Kennedy called on the
cosmetic industry to "take immediate measures to eliminate, to the extent
possible, NDELA [a potent nitrosamine] and any other N-nitrosamine from cosmetic
products." Since that warning, however, cosmetic manufacturers have done
little to remove N-nitrosamines from their products, and the FDA has done even
less to monitor them.
Individual FDA scientists are speaking out. The FDA's Donald Harvey and Hardy
Chou proclaimed that the continued use of these ingredients contradict what
should be a social goal: keeping "human exposure to N-nitrosamines to the
lowest level technologically feasible, by reducing levels in all personal care
products."
Student Researchers: Robin Stovall, Gavin Grundmann, Erika Well
Faculty Evaluator: Debora Hammond, Ph.D. |
