Marielle Segarra
Appearances
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
Yeah, well, when the FDA approves drugs, it looks at safety and efficacy. And it does that before a drug can ever be sold to Americans.
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
But when I talked to Linda Katz, she's a doctor and former director of the Office of Cosmetics and Colors at the FDA, she said that for cosmetics, which include not just makeup, but shampoo, body wash, hairspray, lotion, anything designed to cleanse, beautify, or alter your appearance.
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
Wow. There is one exception, I should say, for certain color additives. I also want to note that we interviewed Dr. Katz in October 2024, and she retired a few months later this January. So that's why she's the former director. But the FDA confirmed to us that this information is still accurate.
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
Yeah, it was surprising to me too. And we learned that there aren't actually many chemicals that the FDA bans or restricts in cosmetics. So there is a list, but it's a short one with only 11 ingredients, and those include things like chloroform and mercury compounds. Right. More than half of those regulations happened in the 60s, 70s, and 80s.
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
But the problem is that some of the ingredients in cosmetics today, like formaldehyde or phthalates, parabens, they're concerning to the scientists who study their effects on human health. We talked to Dana Yano. She's an epidemiologist at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
Well, one thing we were wondering when we reported this is if these cosmetic ingredients are so concerning and there's evidence that they're linked to endocrine disruption or cancer, why hasn't the FDA banned them? What's the answer? We got a couple answers. One, and this is our first takeaway, is that the safety of some cosmetic ingredients is still being debated.
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
On its website, the FDA says, under U.S. law, cosmetic companies are responsible for marketing, quote, safe, properly labeled products using no prohibited ingredients. But what does safe mean? Here's Linda Katz, formerly of the FDA.
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
We have, and we found that the story goes back at least to 1933. Yeah. When this new mascara and eyebrow dye came on the market in America, it was called Lashlore. And the advertisements told women, you know, that they would radiate personality when they use this product.
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
She says to be considered injurious or unsafe, a product would have to cause a serious adverse event. like significant hair loss, persistent rashes, disfigurement, birth defects, inpatient hospitalization, a life-threatening experience, or death. Of course, if you get cancer or if your hormones are going haywire, it's hard to pin that to using a particular product with a particular ingredient.
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
Emily Barrett is an epidemiologist at the Rutgers School of Public Health.
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
Emily says it's especially hard to prove that something is a carcinogen. It's difficult and expensive. And so a lot of the evidence we have on cosmetics comes from animal studies.
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
Emily says just because we don't have those definitive studies doesn't mean there's no link between certain cosmetic ingredients and cancer. The American Cancer Society gets at this in a statement on its website where it says, quote, human studies of the long-term effects of most cosmetics, except perhaps hair dyes, don't exist, end quote.
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
And so there's, quote, little evidence and little is known about the health effects of long-term exposure to many ingredients and cosmetics. Linda Katz told us that the FDA reviews the published literature and any data that's presented to the agency on each of these ingredients of concern. And she said it's a long process adding chemicals to the banned list.
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
We as individuals have to look closely at the ingredient list on each of our personal care products and make these decisions for ourselves.
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
Yes, and a quick note here. We are going to cover some of the major ingredients of concern, the ones that kept coming up as we talked to epidemiologists, but this is not an exhaustive list. So epidemiologists study disease in the population. We talked to ones who focus specifically on the safety of ingredients in personal care products.
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
And they told us one of their big red flags when they're reading a product label is the word fragrance. That's because of a law about product labeling. Under the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act, companies have to list a cosmetic product's ingredients on the label, except for anything that gives the product its scent. They can describe that using one word, fragrance.
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
Right. Yeah. But unfortunately, Lashlore contained a chemical dye that blinded several women and it led to another one's death. And that was at a time before the Food and Drug Administration had the power to ban dangerous chemicals. in cosmetics and personal care products.
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
That's Melanie Benesch, an attorney and vice president for government affairs at a nonprofit called the Environmental Working Group. Some chemicals that fall under this fragrance umbrella have been linked to long term health effects. Right. Emily Barrett at Rutgers says phthalates are an example. They're a class of synthetic chemicals and they're in all kinds of products.
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
Nail polish, hairspray, cleansers, shampoos, lotions, perfumes. The purpose of phthalates is to make plastics more durable. They can also be used as a solvent.
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
Like there have been a lot of studies showing a link between high phthalate levels in pregnant women and preterm birth.
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
So you can either avoid fragrance entirely or you can look for products that say on the label their fragrance is phthalate-free.
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
Yeah, this one is a roundup of some other ingredients of concern. And a big one is formaldehyde. Ooh, yeah, I bet. Yeah, if you've ever done chemical hair straightening or smoothing at home or at a salon, like a Brazilian blowout service, you have likely been exposed to formaldehyde gas, which is a known carcinogen, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
and it's released when these products are heated during the straightening process. Formaldehyde gas can cause other health problems too, from short-term lung irritation and eye irritation to headaches, dizziness, and asthma with repeat exposures. Wow. The Environmental Working Group filed a petition with the FDA in 2021 to get the agency to ban formaldehyde and hair-straightening ingredients.
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
Another common chemical of concern is 1,4-dioxane. According to the FDA, this is a contaminant that can show up in trace amounts in some cosmetics. It's a byproduct of the manufacturing process. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services identifies it as a potential carcinogen, and the Environmental Protection Agency calls it a likely human carcinogen. based on animal studies.
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
The FDA says 1,4-dioxane may be present in ingredients that contain the prefix, word, or syllables PEG, polyethylene, polyethylene glycol, polyoxyethylene, F, or oxynol. But the agency also notes that according to some analyses, the amount contained in cosmetics is likely too low to cause health problems. So again, this choice is up to consumers. Yeah, as always. Yeah.
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
So partly because of Lashlore, Congress eventually passed a law called the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and that gave the FDA the ability to regulate cosmetics. But I'm guessing that didn't, like, totally solve everything, right? No, it did not. Because on the one hand, our laws are stricter than they were in 1933.
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
So the last ingredient of concern I'm going to mention, parabens. Parabens are synthetic antimicrobial chemicals added to cosmetics because they act as a preservative, which allows companies to keep products on shelves and for you to keep them in your makeup drawer longer.
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
There have been some links between parabens and poor reproductive health. And researchers are also looking into a potential link between parabens and breast cancer, but the evidence is limited. So Emily says the research isn't quite settled when it comes to parabens, because there just haven't been enough studies yet.
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
You can find out if a personal care product has parabens by looking at the label.
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
And you can also look for products that say paraben-free. Okay. The unfortunate reality here is companies might be replacing parabens with other preservatives that could ultimately prove harmful. They just haven't been studied widely yet. But Adena Llanos at Columbia University says given the current data... I do think that
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
Like, if another product like Lashlore came on the market, something that made people go blind... The FDA would have the power to ban it and most likely would do that. But when we were reporting this episode, we were surprised to find out there's still a lot the FDA can't and doesn't do when it comes to personal care product safety. Like what? Like what are the limits?
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
All right. It's time for a recap. Excellent. Takeaway one, the safety of some cosmetic ingredients is still being debated and it takes the FDA a long time to ban ingredients. So it is up to us to learn about the products we're using and make these choices. Okay.
Short Wave
What's In Your Personal Care Products?
And then takeaways two and three are to learn about current ingredients of concern, including fragrance, which often includes phthalates. Phthalates can also be present in other products. And there's also formaldehyde, 1,4-dioxane, and parabens.