Are you worth it?

93% of British women use cosmetics in some shape or form making us one of the highest users in Europe.
(Key Note Report – Cosmetics & Fragrances - A Market Sector Overview 10th Edition, 1994; Ed. By Eleanor Hughes)

UK consumers spend £5bn a year on cosmetics.
(Euromonitor – Consumer Europe 2002/3 – 18th Edition Pub. Euromonitor International Plc., 60/61 Britton St., EC1 5UX)

Women can use up to 20 different products as part of their daily routine.
(WEN ‘Ending the cosmetics cover up’ workshop, 2002; one woman recorded using 26 products as part of her morning routine.)

At a WEN workshop 80% of boys aged 9-14 reported using deodorant every day; hair gel was their favourite cosmetic, perfume was the favourite among the girls.
(WEN Wales, Ecofun survey results, June 2002).

Packaging

It has been estimated that as much as 50% of the cost of a bottle of perfume can be accounted for by packaging and advertising.
(Key Note Report – Cosmetics & Fragrances - A Market Sector Overview 10th Edition, 1994; Ed. By Eleanor Hughes)

Occupational hazards

Studies suggest that those who have worked for 10 or more years as a hair stylist could have a risk of bladder cancer five times that of the general population.
(Alicia Di Rado, University of Southern California News ‘Medicine: Hair dyes pose heightened cancer risk’, 7th February 2001)

Nail polish and nail polish removers are essentially mixtures of toxic chemicals. Many of the solvents and substances used in nail varnishes such as toluene, acetone, formaldehyde, and especially phthalates, if present, are reproductive toxicants and hazardous and have been found to cause health problems in workers, including occupational asthma.
(Ng, T. et al. ‘Risk of spontaneous abortion in workers exposed to toluene’, British Journal of Industrial Medicine 49: 804-808 (1992);Occupational Airways, Vol.3, No.2, August 1997)

Due to the latest fashion trends for nail extensions and the increasing number of nail salons, whilst consumers themselves are being exposed to this toxic cocktail, workers (usually female) can be exposed to it for hours at a time in working environments with less than adequate ventilation and often no protection.
(Occupational Airways, Vol.3, No.2, August 1997)

Scents and sensitivities

Current legislation does not restrict the quantities or combinations of fragrance chemicals that maybe used in cosmetics. According to the cosmetics industry a typical cosmetic often contains between 50 and 100 fragrances.
(‘Ethical Consumer’, June/July 1997)

Children in particular tend to be more sensitive to fragrances, and can develop allergic reactions easily.
(Percutaneous Absorption; Drugs – Cosmetics – Mechanisms – Modelling’ 3rd Edition Eds. Robert L. Bronaugh and Howard I. Maibach Pub. Marcel Dekker Inc., New York, US (1999))

How absorbing

The skin is the body’s largest organ.

The outer layer of the skin is made up of about 15 layers of flat, dead cells – this can be penetrated quite well by some oils and alcohols, so they are often used in skin products to help carry the active ingredients into the deeper layers.
(The Chemistry and Manufacture of Cosmetics’; Vol. 1, Basic Science ed. Mitchell L. Schlossman pub. Allured Publishing Corporation, 2000) (Percutaneous Absorption; Drugs – Cosmetics – Mechanisms – Modelling’ 3rd Edition Eds. Robert L. Bronaugh and Howard I. Maibach Pub. Marcel Dekker Inc., New York, US (1999).
This means most of our exposure to the chemicals in cosmetics is via the skin.

Ingredients

Parabens
Parabens have been detected in human breast tissue and, although they cannot yet be conclusively linked as a possible cause of breast cancer, evidence now suggests they can act as oestrogen mimics.
(Byford, J.R., Shaw, L.E., Drew, M.G.B., Pope, G.S., Sauer, M.J., Darbre, P.D., ‘Oestrogenic activity of parabens in MCF7 human breast cancer cells’; J. Steroid Biochem. Mol. Biol. 80: 49-60 (2002)
Darbre, P.D., Byford, J.R., Shaw, L.E., Horton, R.A., Pope, G.S., Sauer, M.J., ‘Oestrogenic activity of isobutylparaben in vitro and in vivo’; J. Appl. Toxicol. 22: 219-226 (2002)
Darbre, P.D., Byford, J.R., Shaw, L.E., Hall, S., Coldham, N.G., Pope, G.S., Sauer, M.J., ‘Oestrogenic activity of benzylparaben’; J. Appl. Toxicol. 23: 43-51 (2003)
Darbre, P.D., ‘Underarm Cosmetics and Breast Cancer’; J. Appl. Toxicol., 23:89-95 (2003)
Routledge, E.J., J. Parker, J. Odum, J. Ashby, J.P. Sumpter, ‘Some alkyl hydroxy benzoate preservatives (parabens) are estrogenic’; Toxicol. Appl. Pharmacol., 153:12-19 (1998).

In a random check, WEN found preservatives suspected of mimicking the female hormone oestrogen, in 57% of products – this is especially worrying for women when lifetime increased exposure to oestrogen is linked to a heightened risk of breast cancer.
(WEN research)

One, propyl paraben, has been shown to adversely affect male reproductive functions; at the “daily intake level” currently acceptable under EC law, it decreased daily sperm production.
(Oishi, S., ‘Effects of propyl paraben on the male reproductive system’; Food and Chemical Toxicology, 40: 1807-1813 (2002))

Triclosan
Used in toothpaste, soaps, household cleaning products, body washes and vaginal washes, Swedish research published in 2002 found high levels of triclosan in 60% of human breast milk samples.
(Adolfsson-Erici, M., Pettersson, M., Parkkonen, J., Sturve, J. ‘Triclosan, a commonly used bactericide found in human milk and in the aquatic environment in Sweden’; Chemosphere 46: 1485-1489 (2002)

Environmentally, triclosan is also a problem, and can be converted to dioxin (linked to cancer) when exposed to sunlight in water.
(Latch, D.E., Packer, J.L., Arnold, W.A., McNeill, K., ‘Photochemical conversion of triclosan to 2,8-dichlorodibenzo-p-diioxin in aqueous solution’; Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology A: Chemistry, 158: 63-66 (2003))

Phthalates
A study by WEN, the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation and Health Care Without Harm – Pretty Nasty (250k pdf) found phthalates in nearly 80% of products tested. None of these had phthalates listed on the label.
(Pretty Nasty – Phthalates in European Cosmetic Products; 2002)

In January 2003 an amendment to the EC Cosmetics Directive was approved, banning chemicals classified as carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic for reproduction from use in cosmetic products. Two of the phthalates – DEHP and DBP – are classified as class 2 compounds, toxic to reproduction. With current legislation, manufacturers do not have to state whether phthalates are present in their fragrances or not.
(The Rules Governing Cosmetic Products in the European Union: Volume 1, Cosmetics Legislation; European Commission, 1999 Edition with February 2003 update (Directive 2003/15/EC); Directive 76/768/EEC)
(Consolidated List of C/M/R Substances (classified as Category 1 or 2 carcinogens, mutagens or toxic to reproduction) Relating to points 29, 30 and 31 of Annex I of Directive 76/769/EEC; http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/chemicals/legislation/markrestr/cmrlist.pdf)
Health Care Without Harm; www.noharm.org/europe

Advertising: does it do what it says on the jar?

Younger women are particularly vulnerable because of the relationship between media exposure to the non-achievable ideal and eating disorders symptoms.
(Stice et al, 1994)

Studies in the US looking at content of Seventeen magazine found in all the issues the largest percentage of pages were devoted to article about appearance.
(About face website - www.about-face.org)

Studies in the US “found that about 70% of college women say they feel worse about their own looks after reading women’s magazines”.
(Jean Kilbourne, Deadly Persuasion 1999)