Is Your Make-Up Aging Your Skin & Making You Sick?

[sarajean]

Is Your Make Up Aging Your Skin and Making You Sick?
www.inspiredliving.com

Women are unknowingly exposing themselves to some 100 chemicals every morning when applying make up. In fact, many lipsticks, creams, eye shadows, foundations, nail polish and perfumes have been regularly found to contain toxic chemicals known to cause infertility.

Yet, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Handbook, which is the "bible" of regulation and standards laid down in the US for the manufacture of food and drugs, including cosmetic and skin care products, cosmetic manufacturers are not required to register with the FDA.

Even if they were required to register with the FDA, it wouldn't make much of a difference because according to their handbook, almost any ingredient may be allowed in cosmetics and perfumes:

"By law, FDA does not have the authority to approve cosmetic products or ingredients, except for color additives.

"With the exception of color additives and a few prohibited ingredients, a cosmetic manufacturer may, on his own responsibility, use essentially any raw material as a cosmetic ingredients and market that product without approval.

"Although not prohibited by law or regulation, in addition, the manufacturers of cosmetic fragrance products have voluntarily agreed to not use or to limit maximum use levels of certain selected ingredients which have been found to cause depigmentation, irritant, neurotoxic or phototoxic or other allergic reactions."

Mercury in Cosmetics

The FDA's handbook on Mercury in cosmetics state:

"Mercury compounds are readily absorbed through the skin on topical application and tend to accumulate in the body. They may cause allergic reactions, skin irritation, or neurotoxic manifestations. The use of mercury compounds as cosmetic ingredients is limited to eye area cosmetics at concentrations not exceeding 65 parts per million (0.0065 percent) of mercury calculated as the metal (about 100 ppm or 0.01 percent phenylmercuric acetate or nitrate) and provided no other effective and safe preservative is available for use."

Nitrosamines in Cosmetics

And this from the FDA handbook:

"Cosmetics containing as ingredients amines or amino derivatives, particularly di- or triethanolamine, may form nitrosamines if they also contain an ingredient which acts as a nitrosating agent as, for example, 2-bromo-2-nitropropane-1,3-diol (Bronopol, Onyxide 500), 5-bromo-5-nitro-1,3-dioxane (Bronidox C) or tris(hydroxymethyl)nitromethane (Tris Nitro), or if they are contaminated with a nitrosating agent, e.g., sodium nitrite. Amines and their derivatives are mostly present in creams, cream lotions, hair shampoos and cream hair conditioners. The nitrosation may occur during manufacture or during product storage.

"Many nitrosamines have been determined to cause cancer in laboratory animals. They have also been shown to penetrate the skin. Nitrosamine contamination of cosmetics became an issue in early 1977. In a study of 29 cosmetic creams and lotions, N-Nitrosodiethanolamine (NDELA) was determined in 27.

"FDA has urged cosmetic manufacturers to voluntarily remove from cosmetic any ingredient which may combine with others to form NDELA and to conduct additional testing to determine why cosmetics become contaminated with NDELA."

In other words, cosmetic manufacturers can do as they please. But wait, there's more harmful chemicals that the FDA suggests manufactures should avoid, but doesn't require them to eliminate:

"Because of its neurotoxic effect and ability to penetrate human skin, hexachlorophene (HCP) may be used only when an alternative preservative has not been shown to be as effective."

And the handbook lists more hazardous chemicals that are prohibited as cosmetic ingredients EXCEPT when unintentional contamination due to the manufacturing process, yet there is nothing in place to regulate the manufacturing process to prevent the contamination:

Bithionol because of its likelihood of causing photo-contact sensitization
Halogenated salicylanilides (di-, tri-, metabromsalan and tetrachlorosalicylanilide) because of their potential of causing photocontact sensitization.
Chloroform because of its animal carcinogenicity and likely hazard to human health.
Vinyl chloride as an ingredient of aerosol products because of its carcinogenic effect in humans and animals.
Zirconium-containing complexes in aerosol cosmetic products because of their toxic effect on lungs, including granulomas.
Methylene chloride because of its animal carcinogenicity and likely hazard to human health.
And that's just a small sampling of what you are putting on your face every day.