Top 5 Most Common Make-up Myths
21 Jul
How safe are the personal care products and cosmetics you and your family use on a daily basis? You may be surprised …
Myth #1: The cosmetics industry effectively polices itself, making sure all ingredients meet a strict standard of safety.
Truth #1: In its more than 30-year history, the industry’s safety panel (the Cosmetic Ingredient Review, or CIR) has assessed fewer than 20 percent of cosmetics ingredients and found only a handful of ingredients or chemical groups to be unsafe. Its recommendations are not binding on companies.
Myth #2: The government prohibits dangerous chemicals in personal care products, and companies wouldn’t risk using them.
Truth #2: Cosmetics companies may use any ingredient or raw material, except for color additives and a few prohibited substances (such as vinyl chloride and cow parts), without government review or approval.
• More than 500 products sold in the U.S. contain ingredients banned in cosmetics in Japan, Canada or the European Union.
• Nearly 100 products contain ingredients considered unsafe by the International Fragrance Association.
• A wide range of nanomaterials whose safety is in question may be common in personal care products.
• 22% of all personal care products may be contaminated with the cancer-causing impurity 1,4-dioxane, including many children’s products.
• 60% of sunscreens contain the potential hormone disruptor oxybenzone that readily penetrates the skin and contaminates the bodies of 97% of Americans.
• 61% of tested lipstick brands contain residues of lead.
Myth #3: Cosmetic ingredients are applied to the skin and rarely get into the body. When they do, levels are too low to matter.
Truth #3: People are exposed by breathing in sprays and powders, swallowing chemicals on the lips or hands or absorbing them through the skin. Studies find evidence of health risks. Biomonitoring studies have found cosmetics ingredients – like phthalate plasticizers, paraben preservatives, the pesticide triclosan, synthetic musks, and sunscreens – inside the bodily fluids of men, women, children and even the cord blood of newborn babies. Many of these chemicals are potential hormone disruptors that may increase cancer risk. Products commonly contain penetration enhancers to drive ingredients deeper into the skin. Studies find health problems in people exposed to common fragrance and sunscreen ingredients, including elevated risk for sperm damage, feminization of the male reproductive system, and low birth weight in girls.
Myth #4: Products made for children or bearing claims like “hypoallergenic” are safer choices.
Truth #4: Most cosmetic marketing claims are unregulated, and companies are rarely if ever required to back them up, even for children’s products. A company can use a claim like “hypoallergenic” or “natural” “to mean anything or nothing at all,” and while “[m]ost of the terms have considerable market value in promoting cosmetic products to consumers,… dermatologists say they have very little medical meaning.” An investigation of more than 1,700 children’s body care products found that 81 percent of those marked “gentle” or “hypoallergenic” contained allergens or skin and eye irritants.
Myth #5: Consumers can read ingredient labels and avoid products with hazardous chemicals.
Truth #5: Federal law allows companies to leave many chemicals off labels, including nanomaterials, contaminants, and components of fragrance. Fragrance may include any of 3,163 different chemicals, none of which are required to be listed on labels. Fragrance tests reveal an average of 14 hidden compounds per formulation, including potential hormone disruptors and diethyl phthalate, a compound linked to sperm damage.
This information has been taken from The Story of Cosmetics: Personal Care Products Myths and Facts by Jason Rano, Legislative Analyst and Jane Houlihan, Senior Vice President for Research, Environmental Working Group.
For more information, watch The Story of Cosmetics:
Help spread the word about The Story of Cosmetics and the ugly truth of “toxics in, toxics out.” “Share the Knowledge” below.
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