Long Lasting Makeup Products may Contain ‘Forever Chemicals’

Do beauty products contain toxic chemicals? For a smooth texture, ingredients including fluorine may contain potentially harmful per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

Highlights:

Forever chemicals don’t naturally degrade and are known to accumulate in the body and soil
In beauty products, these substances are added to make them water-resistant, durable and spreadable
Consumers should avoid products containing “perfluoro” on the labels to reduce their exposure to toxic chemicals

Manufacturers sometimes use ingredients that contain fluorine including potentially harmful per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to achieve Smooth, foamy, water-proof makeup. These characteristics are extremely desirable in beauty products.

Now, researchers reporting in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology show that some cosmetics and personal care products labelled as having fluorinated components also contain PFAS, whether or not these “forever chemicals” were listed as ingredients.

Forever Chemicals: Hidden Danger in Routine Life

Although the most concerning PFAS are no longer used in many beauty products, in some cases they’ve been replaced with other classes of PFAS that have unknown health and environmental impacts. And a recent study found that numerous cosmetics in the U.S. and Canada still contain these substances ().

Drugs and Cosmetics Rules - Schedule H & Schedule H1 Drugs
Drugs and Cosmetics Rules state that schedule H and Schedule H1 drugs are to be sold only against a prescription by a registered medical practitioner.

‘Forever chemicals such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are intentionally added in the form of fluorinated components as ingredients in some cosmetic products.’

However, it’s unclear whether these compounds were used in personal care products, such as creams, cleansers, shampoos and shaving creams. So, researchers decided to examine a variety of beauty products that listed fluorinated components in their formulations for the presence of PFAS.

Is Your Long-lasting Makeup Toxic?

In 2020 and 2021, they purchased 38 beauty products available from local stores in Canada and online that contained organo-fluorine compounds and analyzed them for older types of PFAS.

All of the samples had measurable levels of PFAS, but some of the detected compounds weren’t listed as ingredients in the products. The levels found in personal care products were generally lower than in cosmetics.

They identified that two foundations, labeled with terms similar to “water-proof,” had high levels of total PFAS, one of which had thousands of parts per million (ppm), a level that exceeds proposed Canadian PFAS regulations.

Harmful Chemicals in Hair Dye and Dishware May Up Risk of Cancer in Pregnant Women
Exposure to cancer-causing chemicals in dishware, hair dye, plastics, and pesticides can affect pregnant women and unborn baby.

Then, the researchers took a subset of the purchased items and screened them for over 200 additional PFAS, including the emerging classes that are replacing legacy compounds.

One emerging class — monohydrogen substituted perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids — was found in 30% of the subset with amounts from less than one ppb to hundreds of ppb ().

Beauty Products may Render Toxicity to Health
Toxicity hidden in cosmetics -Almost 52% of 231 cosmetic products in the U.S. and Canada are found to contain a high amount of harmful man-made ‘forever chemicals’ PFAS that are toxic to health.

During this analysis, they also found a variety of structurally diverse PFAS that didn’t appear to be related to the PFAS originally added to the products, which the researchers suggest could be the result of product aging or contamination from impurities in raw materials.

These results show the diversity of PFAS compounds, and the wide range of their amounts, present in some cosmetics and personal care products currently sold in Canada, but the researchers say more work is needed to understand where unexpected PFAS come from.

Wearing Makeup during Pregnancy can Make Your Unborn Child Obese, Overweight
Is it safe to wear makeup during pregnancy? No, moms-to-be who use too many cosmetics containing harmful chemicals such as parabens can make your unborn child obese and overweight.

References:

Per and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Cosmetics - (https://www.fda.gov/cosmetics/cosmetic-ingredients/and-polyfluoroalkyl-substances-pfas-cosmetics)
Targeted and Suspect Screening of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances in Cosmetics and Personal Care Products - (https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.2c02660)

Source-Medindia