Although many baby products are touted as being “pure” and “gentle,” dozens of top products contain cancer-causing chemicals. In fact, more than half of the products tested for a report released by the nonprofit Campaign for Safe Cosmetics contained dangerous 1,4-dioxane or formaldehyde, or both.
The contaminated products weren’t cut-rate brands, either. Popular products by top name-brands including Johnson & Johnson Baby Shampoo and Baby Magic lotion contained both of the cancer-causing ingredients.
The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics had an independent company test 48 baby bath products for 1,4-dioxane and 28 for formaldehyde. They discovered that 32 of 48 contained small amounts of 1,4-dioxane, and 23 out of the 28 contained trace amounts of formaldehyde, while 17 of 28 products contained both.
Both chemicals are known carcinogens, and formaldehyde can also trigger skin rashes.
None of the product labels listed the cancer-causing agents, because they are not added to products on purpose, but are instead byproducts of manufacturing and therefore exempt from labeling laws.
“Our intention is not to alarm parents, but to inform parents that products that claim to be gentle and pure are contaminated with carcinogens, which is completely unnecessary,” Stacy Malkan, spokeswoman for the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, told the “Washington Post.”
The European Union bans 1,4-dioxane in personal care products, but the FDA says trace amounts are not harmful.
“The levels we’ve found are relatively low, and the industry often says there’s just a little bit of carcinogen in my products,” Malkan said. “The problem is, we’re finding a little bit of carcinogen in many products. Many of these products are used every day, so we’ve got repeated and frequent exposure to these low levels of chemicals. They’re not the safest and purest products, and parents ought to know that.”
Some lawmakers believe the system that regulates chemicals needs to be changed. “The fact that we are bathing our kids in products contaminated with carcinogens shows how woefully out of date our cosmetics laws are and how urgently they need to be updated,” said Rep. Jan Schakowsky.
© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
|
