How Dangerous Are Your Cosmetics?    

Most personal care and beauty product consumers would be slightly unnerved to find that the government doesn't require any mandatory testing for these products before they hit store shelves. As a matter of fact, a government agency found out that cosmetic manufacturers could use just about any raw materials in their products and then put them on the market without needing approval by the FDA.

The lack of government involvement has led to companies who manufacture these types of products to not adhere to any testing standards and market products that are considered to cause potentially damaging health risks.

A six-month computer investigation evaluated the safety of over 10,000 personal care product ingredients and included 2,300 people. The investigation revealed the following information on personal care use:

• Each day, the average adult uses nine personal care products that contain 126 different chemical ingredients

• Over a quarter of a million women and one out of every 100 men use on the average of 15 products a day

Findings From the Personal Care Safety Assessment

• Only 28 of the 7,500 products in the study were completely tested by the cosmetic industry's self-regulating panel

• An astounding one-third of all the products assessed contained at least one ingredient that fell under the classification of human carcinogen

• 71 percent of the hair dye products evaluated had carcinogenic coal tar as part of their ingredients

• Almost 70 percent of the products reviewed were found to have ingredients that could be tainted with impurities related to cancer and other health complications

• 54 percent of the products violated the safety recommendations proposed by the self-regulating Cosmetic Ingredient Review Board. Some examples of the unsafe ingredients in these products were discovered in diaper cream, products on the market for damaged skin such as chapped skin and other ingredients found in spray products

• Over the course of keeping watch over the cosmetic industry, the FDA has banned a mere nine personal care products

Based on these findings, researchers agreed that the lack of monitoring by the FDA has led to a huge leniency toward the testing of cosmetic ingredients and has resulted in a large portion of products available on the market that pose health risks to the consumers.

Recommendations to Cosmetic Manufacturers by the Environmental Working Group

• Take out all possible cancer carcinogens and other developmental toxins from products

• Ensure that ingredients are certified and free of impurities with known possible human carcinogens or developmental toxins

• Eliminate any ingredients that qualify as harmful or unsafe

Environmental Working Group June 2004