Lead in Lipstick: Are LOreal, Maybelline Lipsticks Safe or Harmful? | Page 2

Lead accumulates in body
But health groups aren’t convinced.

“Lead builds in the body over time, and lead-containing lipstick applied several times a day, every day, can add up to significant exposure levels,” says Mark Mitchell, Environmental Health Task Force for the National Medical Association co-chairman said in a group statement in 2007.

Heavy metals are found naturally in the environment in rocks, soil and water—and exist in the ingredients used to manufacture pigments or what FDA calls “color additives” that are the raw materials of all industries, including the cosmetics industry.

Governments around the world have applied numerous measures to reduce the amount of heavy metals to which people are exposed, including banning their use in cosmetics.

The United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and many countries of Europe have banned the use of heavy metals like lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, antimony and chromium as ingredients in cosmetics.

If absorbed by the body, lead exerts adverse effects on many organs like the kidneys and systems including the central nervous system and the hematopoietic or blood-forming system.

Children are more susceptible than adults to lead exposure — as well as more susceptible to its effects. Kids, as well as fetuses and pregnant women, are also particularly at risk for the subtle adverse effects of chronic low-dose lead. Children absorb about 50 percent of ingested lead.

To protect children, the World Health Organization has established 25 micrograms of lead per kilogram of body weight per week as a provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) for children.

In Canada, the Drinking Water Guidelines in Canada limit the lead content to a Maximum Acceptable Concentration (MAC) of 0.010 milligrams per liter (0.010 ppm) of water.

In the U.S., the FDA sets acceptable oral intake of lead impurities include at 0.1 ppm for candy; the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention sets the limit for nutritional supplements to 10 ppm.

EPA’s maximum allowable lead level in drinking water is 15 ppm, but its goal for lead in drinking water is zero—and this is what consumer advocates would like to see happen in consumer products as well.

“Lead is a proven neurotoxin that can cause learning, language and behavioral problems such as lowered IQ, reduced school performance and increased aggression,” Dr. Sean Palfrey, a professor of pediatrics and public health at Boston University and the medical director of Boston’s Lead Poisoning Prevention Program tells the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.

“Pregnant women and young children are particularly vulnerable to lead exposure, because lead easily crosses the placenta and enters the fetal brain where it can interfere with normal development,” he warns, saying he’s disturbed by the lack of safety guidelines for allowable lead in cosmetics.

“Since recent science suggests that there’s truly no safe lead exposure for children and pregnant women, it’s disturbing that manufacturers are allowed to continue to sell lead-containing lipsticks,” he huffs.

But even Health Canada, that country’s drug regulator, points out that while absorption of lead through the skin has been demonstrated in animals and human subjects, “few studies have provided quantitative estimates of dermal absorption and the contribution of the dermal intake to lead body burden.”

Meanwhile, as the campaign continues to pressure the FDA to set a maximum limit of lead in lipstick, based on the lowest lead levels manufacturers can feasibly achieve, other groups like a nonprofit research center affiliated with George Mason University’s Center for Health and Risk Communication have been urging cautious interpretation of findings.

“These things sound terribly scary, but there’s a massive disconnect between how toxicologists evaluate risks and how activist groups evaluate risk, and even then there are debates,” Trevor Butterworth, the editor of stats.org, the Web site of Stats tells the New York Times in 2009.

In March, Stats asked 937 Society of Toxicology members if cosmetics were a “significant source of chemical health risk.” Sixty-six percent disagreed, 26 percent agreed and eight percent said they “didn’t know.”

Still not convinced?
You’re not alone. According to the industry group Organic Trade Association, sales of organic personal-care products sales reached about $490 million in 2010, a 6.6 percent rise over 2007, and continue to grow despite the downturn.

And in September 2009, a “Lips Against Lead” campaign to ban lead in lipstick was started by Teens Turning Green, a national group promoting a healthier lifestyle.

Little girls like to play dress up and slather mom’s lipstick on themselves — so parents should be careful to keep these lipsticks away from them.

And then, you can always turn to a growing number of organic lipstick brands — but do check that they really don’t have lead in them, as they claim.