Lobby groups say FDA is holding back on unsafe ingredients
conducted a safety study of phthlates - a group of industrial
chemicals linked to birth defects that are used in many cosmetics
products - but is refusing to publicly release the study's
findings.
In response, Friends of the Earth, a founding member of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requesting to obtain the study findings.
According to preliminary information uncovered by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics about the study, two-thirds of health and beauty products analyzed by the FDA late last year contained phthalates. Two of the most toxic phthalates, DEHP and DBP, have been banned from cosmetics products sold in the European Union but remain unregulated in the United States.
"The FDA is withholding an important piece of scientific research from the public," said Lisa Archer , campaign co-ordinator for Friends of the Earth. "We deserve to know if there are harmful ingredients in our cosmetics products. As a publicly-funded agency, the FDA has a duty to tell the public what it knows about which products contain phthalates."
FDA reported the existence of the study in the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition 2004 Program Priorities Accomplishments, which was released in January. According to the FDA's Web site, the agency "surveyed 48 cosmetic products and identified 5 phthalate esters in 32 of the products. Phthalate levels ranging from 16 ppm to 59,000 ppm were found; the highest levels found were in nail enamels."
The FDA survey followed a 2002 report by environmental and health groups, entitled Not Too Pretty, in which independent lab tests found phthalates in 72 per cent of beauty products. Since phthalates are not listed as ingredients on product labels, they can only be detected through laboratory analysis.
Phthalates are industrial chemicals used in various consumer products, including shampoos, deodorants and hair sprays. In animal tests, some phthalates have damaged the developing testes of offspring and caused malformation of the penis and o the r parts of the reproductive tract.
Several top cosmetics companies, including L'Oréal, Revlon and Unilever, have said they will voluntarily remove DBP and DEHP from products sold in the United States.
The news comes as legislators in California try to introduce two state bills banning the use of cosmetics ingredients said to induce harmful effects in pregnant women or to be carcinogens. The bills also focus on the use of potentially dangerous phthalates, similarly stressing that the substances are banned by the European Union for use in cosmetics formulations.
