Government scientists recently identified a group of toxic chemicals known as phthalates in urine of adults, with highest levels in premenopausal women, resulting from inhalation and skin exposure to volatile parent ingredients used extensively as solvents and plasticizers in personal care and cosmetic (PCC) products. The include perfumes, shampoos, hair sprays and nail polishes. These findings raise major concerns in view of documented evidence dating back to 1985, that these phthalates induce birth defects, low sperm count and other reproductive toxicity in experimental animals. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized by the 1938 Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act to ban unsafe PCC products, responded that it will now “consider” this longstanding information. While obviously important, the phthalate findings merely reflect the tip of the iceberg of more fundamental problems which have received minimal, if any, attention, from Congress, the media and the public.

The FDA’s relaxed response reflects reckless regulatory abdication matched by unresponsiveness of mainstream industries. A 1990 report by the U.S. General Accounting Office charging that the FDA commits no resources for assessing PCC safety had no impact on the agency’s policies. The agency’s sole requirement is restricted to ingredient labelling of PCC products, with the exception of fragrances and perfumes. With rare exceptions, such as children’s bubble baths, the FDA has never required industry to label PCC products with any warning of well-documented toxic or cancer risks, not has it banned the sale of unsafe products to an unsuspecting public.


·The skin is extremely permeable. Cosmetic ingredients most certainly are absorbed through the skin. Some chemicals may penetrate the skin in significant amounts, especially when left on the skin for long periods. One study has shown that 13% of the preservative butylate hydroxytoluene (BHT) and 49% of the carcinogenic pesticide DDT (which is found in some products containing lanolin) is absorbed through the skin.

·Black and dark brown permanent hair dyes contain numerous ingredients, such as diaminoanisole and FD&C Red 33, recognised as carcinogens in experimental animals. This evidence is supported by studies establishing that regular use of those dyes poses major risks of relatively rare cancers – non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and multiple Myeloma.

·Cosmetic grade talc is carcinogenic in experimental animals. Also frequent genital dusting with talc, routinely practised by 17% of women, increases risks of ovarian cancer.

·A group of widely used preservatives, such as quaternium 15 and Bronopol, widely used in baby products, though not carcinogenic themselves, break down to release formaldehyde, a potent irritant and carcinogen and also cause the formation of carcinogenic nitrosamines under certain conditions. One of the most expensive lines of cosmetics, Chanel, often uses this chemical. So do many leading brands of baby products. As does the Body Shop, whose products are built on a reputation of containing natural ingredients.

·Lanolin, widely used on babies’ skin and nipples of nursing mothers, is commonly contaminated with DDT dieldrin, and lindane, in addition to other neurotoxic pesticides.

·Commonly used PCC detergents and foaming agents, such as polysorbates and PEG, are usually contaminated with the volatile carcinogen dioxane, although this could easily be removed by vacuum stripping during manufacture.

·Diethanolamine (DEA), another widely used chemical detergent, has been known since 1975 to combine with nitrate preservatives or contaminants in PCC products to form a highly carcinogenic nitrosodiethanolamine (NDEA). Recent government studies showed that DEA itself is also carcinogenic following application to mouse skin. NDEA is readily absorbed through the skin and has been linked to stomach, oesophagus, liver and bladder cancers.

·A wide range of personal care products including shampoos, hair conditioners, cleansers, lotions and creams, besides household products such as soaps and cleaning products, contain surfactants or detergents such as ethoxylated alcohols, polysorbates, and laureths. These ingredients are generally contaminated with high concentrations of the highly volatile 1,4-dioxane, which is both readily inhaled and absorbed through the skin. The carcenogenicity of dioxide in rodents was first reported in 1965 and subsequently confirmed in other studies including by the National Cancer Institute in 1978; the predominant sites of cancer were nasal passage in rats and liver in mice. Epidermiological studies on dioxane-exposed furniture makers have reported suggestive evidence of excess nasal passage cancers. On the basis of such evidence, the Consumer Product Safety Commission concluded that “the presence of 1,4-dioxane, even as a trace contaminant, is a cause for concern.” These avoidable risks of cancer in numerous personal care, besides other consumer, products is inexcusable, particularly as the dioxane is readily removed from surfactants during their manufacture by a process known as “vacuum-stripping”.

·Some artificial colours, such as Blue 1 and Green 3, are carcinogenic. Impurities found in commercial batches of other cosmetic colours such as D&C Red 33, FD&C Yellow 5 and FD&C Yellow 6 have been shown to cause cancer not only when ingested but also when applied to the skin. Some artificial coal tar colours contain heavy metal impurities, including arsenic and lead, which are carcinogenic.

·Some silica used in cosmetics, especially amorphous hydrated silica, may be contaminated with small amounts of crystalline quartz. Crystalline silica is carcinogenic.


Citizen petitions to the FDA by the Cancer Prevention Coalition in 1994 and 1996 detailing evidence of the cancer risks of talc and DEA-containing products, respectively, and “Seeking Carcinogenic Labelling” on these products, met with no substantive response.

Concerns of cancer risks from PCC products are emphasized by: lifelong use of multiple products by the majority of the U.S. population; the ready absorption of carcinogenic ingredients, further increased by detergents, especially when left on the skin for prolonged periods; and by decades-long suppression of information by the FDA and industry, abetted by a roll-over media, in flagrant denial of consumers’ right-to-know. Mainstream industry products thus pose major risks of avoidable cancer. Their roll in the escalating incidence of cancer, now striking one in two men and one in three women in their lifetimes, remains largely unrecognised by our apparently health conscious society. Armed with such information, consumers should protect themselves by shopping for safe alternative products.


Hidden Carcinogens

The following list is taken from the Cancer Prevention Coalition in the USA – they show some of the hidden carcinogens and the everyday products they might be found in.

Nitrosamine Precursors

Diethanolamine (DEA) – found in shampoos, lotions, creams and other cosmetics;
Triethanolamine (TEA) – found in various forms in just about every type of personal care product available;
Bronopol – used as a preservative in shampoos and other cosmetics;
Padimate O – found in sunscreens.


Formaldehyde Releasers

Bronopol – see above;
Quaternium 15 – found in make up and make up removers, shampoo, soap, moisturisers, shaving products, cleansers, disinfectants;
Diazolidinyl Urea – found in cosmetics, lotions, creams, moisturisers, sunscreens, eye-shadows, mascaras, conditioners, bathing products;
Imidazolidinyl Urea – found in most make up, make up remover, shampoo, cleansers, moisturisers;
DMDM Hydantoin – found in shampoos and make up.


Overt Carcinogens

Diethanolamine (DEA) – see above;
Talc – found in cosmetic and beauty powders;
Fluoride – toothpaste and other oral products;
Coal Tar Dyes – hair dyes;
Blue 1 – hair dyes;
Green 3 – hair dyes;
Para-Phenylenediamine – hair dyes





NOTE: Information on carcinogenic PCC products and on safe alternatives is detailed in: Epstein, “The Politics of Cancer Revisited” (Appendix 14), 1998, East Ridge Press, Hankins, NY; and Steinman & Epstein ”The Safe Shoppers’ Bible” 1995 Macmillan/IDG, New York





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