Cancer-causing chemicals are in many beauty products women use, a study finds

A study recruited Black and Latina women and asked them to log each nan beauty products they usage successful a week. More than half of nan women utilized products pinch known carcinogens. puhhha/iStockphoto/Getty Images hide caption

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puhhha/iStockphoto/Getty Images

More than half of Black and Latina women successful Los Angeles who participated successful a caller study regularly utilized personal-care products containing a known carcinogen.

Study participants photographed nan constituent lists of each nan products they utilized astatine location complete nan people of a week. The diary Environmental Science & Technology Letters published nan study Wednesday.

Of 64 women, researchers recovered that 53% reported utilizing soap, lotion, shampoo, conditioner, tegument lightener, eyeliner, eyelash glue and different beauty products that contained formaldehyde and formaldehyde-releasing preservatives — toxins recovered to cause crab successful humans.

 
"It's really concerning that we are intentionally putting chemicals that merchandise a carcinogen into our products that we use to ourselves each day," said lead writer Robin Dodson, subordinate head of investigation astatine Silent Spring Institute, a Massachusetts nonprofit studying biology causes of bosom cancer.

"Formaldehyde is simply a awesome preservative," she said. "That's why it's utilized arsenic an embalming fluid. And we do person to retrieve formaldehyde is simply a carcinogen."

The study is among nan first to show that formaldehyde-releasing preservatives are coming successful a wide scope of beauty products.
 
The research, collected successful 2021, focused connected Black and Latina women aft erstwhile studies showed they are much often exposed to formaldehyde successful nail and hairsbreadth products than achromatic women. Researchers person questioned whether African American women's predominant usage of chemic hairsbreadth straighteners, suspected of containing formaldehyde-releasing agents, mightiness explicate why breast, uterine and ovarian cancers termination disproportionately more Black than white women.

In 2023, a twelve years aft a national agency classified formaldehyde a quality carcinogen, nan Food and Drug Administration was tentatively scheduled to unveil a proposal to see banning nan chemic successful hairsbreadth straighteners. Two years later, nan authorities still has failed to act. The FDA declined to comment.

The caller study shows that formaldehyde and formaldehyde-releasing products are coming not only successful hairsbreadth relaxers but successful a wide assortment of beauty products, including immoderate that women use to their bodies acold much often than chemic hairsbreadth straighteners.

One study subordinate utilized 3 formaldehyde products: a leave-in conditioner, a rinse-off conditioner and a assemblage wash. Another subordinate washed pinch manus soap pinch formaldehyde-releasing agents an mean of doubly a day.

An array of products

The sheer number of products — 1,143 complete 7 days — nan 64 participants utilized struck Tracey Woodruff, who directs nan University of California astatine San Francisco's Program connected Reproductive Health and nan Environment. The women successful nan study utilized an mean of 17 different products a time — arsenic fewer arsenic 5 and arsenic galore arsenic 43.

"It speaks to nan unit women person to look a definite way," said Woodruff, who was not progressive pinch nan caller research.
 
Social and economical pressures often compel Black women to change their quality to conform to achromatic beauty standards, said study co-author Janette Robinson Flint, executive head of Black Women for Wellness. She called for authorities oversight of personal-care products. "We shouldn't person to beryllium chemists to fig retired what kinds of products will make america sick," she said. 

"Beauty norms that attraction connected achromatic position decidedly are resulting successful group utilizing products that tin beryllium harmful to their health," Woodruff said. "This is portion of nan bequest and history of favoritism against nan Black and Latinx population." 

Woodruff would person liked nan study to besides comparison merchandise usage by achromatic women successful an effort to measure whether beauty-product usage is contributing to wellness inequities.

Woodruff and Dodson joined Flint successful calling for authorities oversight and regularisation of cosmetics and different personal-care products.

Banned successful Europe

In summation to being a carcinogen, formaldehyde, a colorless and smelly gas, tin origin rashes and tin sicken those who respire it in, according to nan FDA. Formaldehyde-releasing products request not beryllium listed arsenic formaldehyde connected constituent labels. Instead, they are listed by their chemic names, specified arsenic DMDM hydantoin, short for 1,3-dimethylol-5,5-dimethylhydantoin, which, arsenic Dodson noted, doesn't precisely rotation disconnected nan tongue. 

The European Union banned formaldehyde arsenic a cosmetic constituent successful 2009, and immoderate cosmetic merchandise containing a formaldehyde-releasing preservative supra a miniscule attraction must see a warning. At slightest 12 states, including California and Washington, person precocious projected aliases enacted laws to modulate nan usage of formaldehyde successful cosmetics. 

How good nan laws will protect consumers remains to beryllium seen. Reports to nan California Department of Public Health's Safe Cosmetics Program do show a tenfold driblet successful products containing formaldehyde from 2009 to 2022.

"In nan very adjacent short term, tomorrow, I deliberation consumers should do nan champion they tin to publication merchandise labels," Dodson said. "In nan longer term, I deliberation location has to beryllium a regulatory solution. It has to travel down to constituent bans, apt astatine nan authorities level."