FDA considering lead limits in lipstick after finding lead in all 400 lipsticks tested
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is considering a move to protect the health of consumers by placing an upper limit on the amount of lead cosmetic manufacturers can have in lipstick products after agency testing showed detectable levels of lead in 400 different lipsticks sold in the United States.
Lead poisoning can affect nearly every system in the body, with developing unborn fetuses and children most at risk.
The FDA regulates cosmetic safety under the authority of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act).
Many color additives used in cosmetics such as lipstick contain minerals, and therefore may contain trace amounts of lead that occur naturally in soil, air and water. While there are limits on the amount of lead allowed in the color additives, there are no limits on the total amount of lead allowed in cosmetics.
Worries over lead in lipstick first started in the 1990’s.
“There is no safe level of lead exposure,” said Stacy Malkan, co-founder of Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. “It builds up in the body over time. A little bit every day is adding up and staying with you.”
According to Malkan, women use an average of twelve cosmetic and hygiene products every day.
The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has been urging the cosmetics industry and FDA to remove lead, chemicals and other toxins from cosmetics since 2004. The organization released a report in 2007 after testing name brand lipsticks on the market and finding more than half of them contained detectable levels of lead. That report prompted the FDA to develop new testing methods for lead content of lipstick. The agency then retested products from the report, also finding levels of lead.
The FDA followed up by conducting an expanded survey of 400 lipsticks in a wide variety of shades, prices and manufacturers purchased from U.S. retail stores between February and July 2012, having them tested for lead by the private laboratory Frontier Global Sciences, Inc.
The expanded survey will appear in the May-June 2012 issue of the Journal of Cosmetic Science. Until then, the FDA published a list ranking the 400 lipsticks by their detectable levels of lead on its website. It is important to note that all the lipstick products tested contained detectable lead, ranging from <.026 parts per million in Wet’n’ Wild’s Mega Mixers Lipbalm “Bahama Mama” to 7.19 ppm in Maybelline’s Color Sensational “Pink Petal”. Cosmetic manufacturer L’Oréal USA had five lipstick products in the top 10 highest levels of lead, Shiseido and Procter & Gamble tied with two each, and Stargazer had one.
“L’Oréal maintains the highest standards for safety and consumers can use all of our products with complete confidence,” L’Oréal spokesperson Rebecca Caruso said in an email to Bloomberg Businessweek.
Critics compare the amount of lead in lipstick to the FDA’s .1 ppm maximum level of lead allowed in candy.
“It is not scientifically valid to equate the risk to consumers presented by lead levels in candy, a product intended for ingestion, with that associated with lead levels in lipstick, a product intended for topical use and ingested in much smaller quantities than candy,” the FDA said.
In a letter to Linda Katz, M.D., M.P.H., director of the FDA’s Office of Cosmetics and Colors, the non-profit consumer advocacy organization Environmental Working Group also urged the FDA take action on lead in lipstick to protect consumers from unnecessary lead exposure.
“Millions of women get a little bit of toxic lead on their lips each day with every swipe of their lipstick,” said Jane Houlihan, senior VP for research at Environmental Working Group. “There is no safe level of lead exposure. The biggest concern is for pregnant women – lead is a potent neurotoxin and the fetus and very young children are most at risk. Some companies make lead-free lipsticks, and we think all companies should.”
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