How Safe Are Health and Beauty Products?

Nov. 22, 2005 — -- You reach for your toothpaste, soap, shampoo and makeup about a dozen times in an average day. But how many times do you wonder what's actually in those products?

Researchers who do wonder have come up with some surprising findings: many popular brands contain ingredients that are known or suspected of causing cancer, reproductive harm or hormonal changes.

And the safety of these everyday products is largely unregulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or any other government agency.

"Because of minimal regulation, products plainly dangerous to your health can be, and are being, sold," said Dr. Samuel S. Epstein, chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition, in a CPC statement.

But many in the industry, and even some industry critics, claim that threats to human health from health and beauty products are exaggerated. These conflicting reports may leave consumers wondering what products are truly safe.

The Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit research group based in Washington, D.C., has developed an online guide to health care products called Skin Deep. This searchable database provides exhaustive information on the ingredients in 988 brand-name products including toothpaste, shampoo, soap and mouthwash.

Many of the popular brands listed in the Skin Deep report contain ingredients that EWG claims are known cancer-causing agents, potentially toxic to the kidneys, liver or digestive organs, or pose toxicity hazards to the nervous system.

The EWG report also includes a handful of product ingredients called "Top Ingredients of Concern." Among these are mercury, lead acetate, coal tar and petroleum distillates, which are prohibited for use in cosmetics by the European Union or are recognized by the FDA as unsafe for use in cosmetics above restricted levels. (Mercury, for example, is allowed by the FDA in eye area cosmetics at levels below 65 parts per million.)

The Cosmetics Ingredient Review is a panel of experts funded by the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association, the trade association for the $32 billion personal care products industry. The CIR has established its own list of products it recommends eliminating, including HC Blue No. 1 (a hair coloring ingredient), the preservative chloroacetamide and hydroxyanisole, an antioxidant.