But when someone passed you the Johnson & Johnson Baby Shampoo, you figured, "What the hey?!" It says "gentle" right there on the bottle. And what company would add creepy chemicals to baby products? I mean, besides Phillip Morris?There's been some interesting findings in baby products lately. A bunch of "safe" and "gentle" baby body gear may cause more than just tears.
Free! With purchase of shampoo! That's right...cancer!
Er?!
Yep, according to a report released by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, there are carcinogens in them thar soaps.
61% of the children’s bath products tested for this report contained both formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane.
Some very popular products, like Johnson’s Baby Shampoo, Sesame Street Bubble Bath, Grins & Giggles Milk & Honey Baby Wash, and Huggies Naturally Refreshing Cucumber & Green Tea Baby Wash, contained both "impurities". The EPA classifies both formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane as "probable carcinogens", with effects on the skin, liver, gallbladder, throat, and nose.
The real kicker? They're not purposely put there, but they're easy to get out.
Formaldehyde is made by the preservatives in cosmetics, there to rightly prevent bacteria. These certain preservatives are aptly dubbed "formaldehyde releasers". The other thing? Formaldehyde is not just cancer-causing, it's a very common allergen. Ever wonder why you get all itchy with certain lotions? You could be part of the 1 in 11 people who are allergic to the stuff.
And what's up with this dioxane jibberish? See, some cosmetics contain petroleum-based ingredients. Yeah, as in a cousin to that stuff you pump into your car. But these ingredients are irritating. Who knew? You don't literally want "oily" skin?! So there's a chemical process to make them less annoying, and that process produces 1,4-dioxane. This lovely chemical also causes the aforementioned cancers and can be absorbed through the skin. The Consumer Products Safety Commission says that
the presence of 1,4-dioxane, even as a trace contaminant, is cause for concern
There's the build-up problem, too. This may not be a correlation = causation thing. Just because you used Baby Magic Lotion on your tot for the first couple of years doesn't mean he'll get cancer. But you know, if these small amounts are in the handful of products that you use every single day on that perfect little body, there's a fair amount of build-up there. Add to that all the chemicals we come into contact with daily, including formaldehyde in the nursery furniture, and bam! We've got a problem on our hands.
Of course, industry disagrees with the whole darn report. Johnson & Johnson said in a statement to the Washington Post:
The FDA and other government agencies around the world consider these trace levels safe, and all our products meet or exceed the regulatory requirements in every country where they are sold. We are disappointed that the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has inaccurately characterized the safety of our products, misrepresented the overwhelming consensus of scientists and government agencies that review the safety of ingredients, and unnecessarily alarmed parents.
Aw. JJ is disappointed in you, Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. You must be heartbroken.
Which government agencies are they talking about, anyhow? Because no one is currently holding these companies accountable, period.
Both of these chemicals could be removed by manufacturers. In fact, neither are allowed in many other parts of the world (Europe especially), and the process to strip the chemicals from the products is actually rather cheap and easy. But since the U.S. doesn't regulate cosmetics, manufacturers don't bother.
Why don't we? Three letters, the letters of my old governmental nemesis: FDA. The current laws on cosmetics regulation have been in place since (ready?) 1939. I'm pretty sure that that's when they still had "alternative uses" for Lysol, too.
The FDA, for its part, says that in small amounts, these chemicals won't kill you. It laments its own inability to regulate the cosmetics industry, like, at all.
The FDA cannot require companies to test products for safety before they are sold, does not systematically review the safety of ingredients and does not set limits for common, harmful contaminants in products.Or, rather, we're about as useless as any major government agency that puts your safety at risk with everything from peanut butter to bisphenol-A to Gardasil. A little mercury in your fish, a bit more in your high fructose corn syrup, a dash in your vaccines...what harm could it do?
What do you want from us...regulation?!
What can I do about this? I mean, besides quitting Baby E's bath time? (Sorry, my precious little stinker. You're still getting doused.)
- Use EWG's Skin Deep cosmetic database to find safer products for the babes of all ages in your home.
- Take action through the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.
- Beauty isn't only on the outside. It's in your wonderful brain, too. Make your own non-creepy products.
- Become a label pro. This is a toughie, because there are thousands of chemicals in cosmetics that we currently have no public data on. However, at the end of the "Toxic Tub" report, there is a list of ingredients that are likely contaminating the whole product. Keep your eye out, parental hawk.
Images: nathalielaure at Flickr and mrbill on Flickr, both under a Creative Commons License.
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