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- [00:00]
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- [00:18]
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- [00:36]
Marielle Segarra
You're listening to Life Kit from npr. Hey everybody, it's Marielle. We're gonna start this episode in 1933 when a new mascara and eyebrow dye came on the market called Lash Lure. The advertisements promised women that they would radiate personality when they used this product. But lashlore contained a chemical dye that blinded several women and led to another's death. That was at a time before the Food and Drug Administration had the power to ban dangerous chemicals in cosmetics and personal care products. Partly because of lashlore, Congress eventually passed a law, the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic act, and that gave the FDA the ability to regulate cosmetics. So problem solved, right? Not exactly. On the one hand, our laws are stricter than they were in 1933. If another product like Lashlore came onto the market, something that made people go blind, the FDA would have the power to ban it and most likely would do that. But in 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 the safety of personal care products. When the FDA approves drugs, it looks at safety and efficacy, and it does that before a drug can be sold to Americans. But for cosmetics, which include not just makeup but shampoo, body wash, hairspray, lotion, anything designed to cleanse, beautify, or alter.
- [02:02]
Dr. Linda Katz
Your appearance, FDA regulates cosmetics all post market. We do not review any applications beforehand, and we evaluate post market for safety. We do not evaluate for efficacy.
- [02:14]
Marielle Segarra
There's one exception for certain color additives. That was Dr. Linda Katz, by the way, former director of the Office of Cosmetics and colors at the FDA. We interviewed her in October 2024, and she retired a few months later this January. The FDA has confirmed to us that this information is still accurate. So again, companies don't have to present cosmetic products to the FDA for approval before they go to market. And there aren't actually that many chemicals that the FDA bans or restricts in cosmetics. There is a list, but It's a short one with only 11 ingredients, including chloroform and mercury compounds. More than half of those regulations happened in the 60s, 70s and 80s, and some of the ingredients in cosmetics today, like formaldehyde, phthalates and parabens are concerning to the scientists who study their effects on human health. Adena Janos is an epidemiologist at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.
- [03:07]
Adena Janos
There are well known studies and lots of evidence that support that many of the personal care products that we use on our skin, in our hair, they contain endocrine disrupting chemicals. We're also seeing that there are some classes of personal care products that also can contain carcinogens.
- [03:30]
Marielle Segarra
A carcinogen is a substance that can cause cancer and when a chemical is endocrine disrupting, that means it interferes with your body's hormones and how they function.
- [03:39]
Adena Janos
That's an area of huge interest in public health and really understanding how these exposures contribute to increased risk of various hormone mediated cancers, but also many other hormone mediated conditions like uterine fibroids, endometriosis.
- [04:00]
Marielle Segarra
Pcos on this episode of Life Kit, we've got a guide to personal care product safety. We'll talk about some current ingredients of concern according to the latest research, how to find alternatives and make the switch, and how to decide what products you actually want or need in your life. One thing I want to note here because this topic can be overwhelming. You don't have to rush to your medicine cabinet, toss everything in the trash and vow to never use face cream or lipstick again. We'll talk about how to prioritize what you replace and to take this one step at a time.
- [04:37]
Sponsor Announcement
Support comes from our 2025 lead sponsor of Life Kit, Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try it@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates Price and coverage match Limited by state law not available in all states.
- [05:01]
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- [05:16]
This message comes from Amica Insurance. As Amica says, empathy is our best policy. Whether you're seeking auto, home or life coverage, they'll work with you to choose the policy that best serves you and your family. Discover how Amica can help protect what matters most to you today. Go to amica.com and get a quote Today support for NPR and the following message come from LinkedIn Marketing Solutions. The best B2B marketing gets wasted on the wrong people. When you want to reach the right professionals, use LinkedIn ads. LinkedIn has grown to a network of over 1 billion professionals. Target buyers by job title, industry company role, seniority skills, company revenue, all the professionals you need to reach in one place. Get a $100 credit on your next campaign. Just go to LinkedIn.com LifeKit terms and conditions apply only on LinkedIn ads.
- [06:13]
Marielle Segarra
One thing we were wondering when we reported this. If these cosmetic ingredients are so concerning and there's evidence linking them to endocrine disruption or cancer, why hasn't the FDA banned them? We got a couple answers to that one, and this is our first takeaway is that the safety of some cosmetic ingredients is still being debated on its website. The FDA says under US 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.
- [06:48]
Dr. Linda Katz
Actually it's in section 608 of the FDC act as amended under MOCRA, where it defines safe to mean that the cosmetic product, including any ingredient thereof, is not injurious to users under the conditions of use prescribed in the labeling thereof or under such conditions that are customary or usual.
- [07:13]
Marielle Segarra
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. Emily Barrett is an epidemiologist at the Rutgers School of Public Health.
- [07:43]
Emily Barrett
That's not necessarily something that you're going to detect right away. There's not going to be like an obvious outcome like a rash. But instead it might mean that, you know, 20 years from now you're at greater risk of breast cancer or 20 years from now you're child is going to have fertility problems because their reproductive system developed in just a little bit different way because of the differences in the hormonal environment. So it's a lot trickier to kind of connect the dots between the exposure and the outcome. When you think about chemicals that have like a much kind of longer lag time until the outcome emerges.
- [08:19]
Marielle Segarra
The science is more settled on some ingredients than others and we will get into that. And there are a couple cosmetic ingredients listed as known or expected carcinogens on the American Cancer Society's website. But 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.
- [08:40]
Emily Barrett
Were we to do the definitive studies on this topic, you might want to recruit people really early in life, maybe in childhood or even in utero, because we don't know kind of what the critical periods are sometimes for cancer risk, and follow them for decades and look at their cosmetic use over their entire lifetime and then see who among this cohort develops cancer. And as you can imagine, that type of study is like impossible to do, right? So the way US Research is funded, it usually is in like five year increments and you would have to apply over and over and over. Not to mention, like, who wants to sign up for a study that's going to follow them for 60 years? Probably not most people.
- [09:18]
Marielle Segarra
Emily says just because we don't have those definitive studies doesn't mean there's no link between certain cosmetic ingredients in 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. And so there's, quote, little evidence and little is known about the health effects of long term exposure to many ingredients in 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. So here we are. Because the FDA's powers are limited and because the process is a long and bureaucratic one, and because they don't feel like they have enough evidence yet on these ingredients, we as individuals have to look closely at the ingredient list on each of our personal care products and make these decisions for ourselves. Takeaway 2 Learn about ingredients of concern starting with fragrance A quick note here. We're 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. Epidemiologists study disease in the population. We talked to ones who focus specifically on the safety of ingredients in 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 fragrance.
- [11:00]
Melanie Benesh
Sometimes there's hundreds of different chemicals that go into making that fragrance. And what exactly those chemicals are, are all protected by trade secret. And so because we often do not know what those constituent ingredients are, it's just hard to say that those ingredients are safe.
- [11:19]
Marielle Segarra
That's Melanie Benesh, 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. Emily Barrett at Rutgers says phthalates are an example. They're a class of synthetic chemicals and they're in all kinds of 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.
- [11:50]
Emily Barrett
They're just very good at holding on to fragrance and color. So they're kind of like carriers of scent and color in products.
- [11:57]
Marielle Segarra
Phthalates are known hormone disruptors.
- [12:00]
Emily Barrett
So the work that we've done in particular is really looking at phthalate exposure during pregnancy and how that might impact the health of the child.
- [12:10]
Marielle Segarra
There have been many studies showing a link between high phthalate levels in pregnant women and preterm birth, for instance. Given what we know at this point and Emily's first piece of advice, probably.
- [12:20]
Emily Barrett
One of my top recommendations for folks who are looking to potentially reduce their exposure would be to avoid products that have fragrance listed in the ingredients.
- [12:31]
Marielle Segarra
This is something she started doing about 15 years ago when she was pregnant with her son.
- [12:35]
Emily Barrett
I, you know, was increasingly reading the literature and seeing all of the ways in which phthalates might be affecting fetal development. I was like, oh, my gosh. Like, I really need to look a little bit more carefully at the products I use. And so for me, you know, the first change was like, I'm gonna stop using perfume, right? Like, that's a very easy fix. And then, you know, over time, I increasingly, like, phased out the products that had fragrance in them, phased in cleaner products.
- [13:02]
Marielle Segarra
So you can either avoid fragrance entirely, or you can look for products that say on the label that their fragrance is phthalate free. By the way, phthalates are used in other products even if they don't have fragrance. Nail polish, lipstick, eyeshadow, foundation, blush, the list goes on. So you can look for phthalate free versions of those products, too. Again, the FDA hasn't banned phthalates it says on its website at the present time, the agency, quote, does not have evidence that phthalates as used in cosmetics pose a safety risk. On that note, you should also know we're exposed to phthalates in a lot of other ways, like when we eat and drink from plastic containers and use plastic toothbrushes, for instance, though you can find ones that are labeled phthalate free. Okay, next up, takeaway three. Let's go over some other ingredients of concern. A big one is formaldehyde. If you've ever done chemical hair straightening or smoothing at home or at a salon like a Brazilian blowout service, you've likely been exposed to formaldehyde gas. It is a known carcinogen, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, 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. The Environmental Working Group filed a petition with the FDA in 2021 to get the agency to ban formaldehyde in hair straightening ingredients.
- [14:28]
Melanie Benesh
The FDA has indicated that they are going to ban formaldehyde, but we haven't seen a proposed rule. We don't know if and when that's coming out, but those are products to avoid.
- [14:41]
Marielle Segarra
The FDA told us they are planning to propose a rule on this, but it's still in process. 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 carcinogenic. Based on animal studies, The FDA says 1,4 dioxane may be present in ingredients that contain the prefix word or syllables peg, polyethylene, polyethylene glycol, polyoxyethylene eth, or auxinol. 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 is up to you. Okay? The last ingredient of concern I'm going to mention are 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.
- [15:48]
Emily Barrett
Increasingly, evidence from both the toxicological studies, so those are the ones in animal models, and then also studies in Humans shows that they interfere with hormone levels in our bodies. Our hormone levels are very tightly regulated, and so they can be disrupted pretty easily by external things like parabens coming into our system.
- [16:10]
Marielle Segarra
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.
- [16:25]
Emily Barrett
I don't think we have a slam dunk yet with parabens. I think the jury's still out a little bit on, you know, what are the health outcomes that they may be causing. But I would say there's enough evidence to, you know, at least make you think twice before you put something that says parabens on the label on your body.
- [16:45]
Marielle Segarra
You can find out if a personal care product has parabens by looking at the label.
- [16:49]
Emily Barrett
There are a variety of different parabens, but they almost all have paraben in the name.
- [16:55]
Marielle Segarra
And you can also look for products that say paraben free. 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 Janos at Columbia University says, given the current data, I do think.
- [17:12]
Adena Janos
That searching for products that are paraben free would be a good idea because at least we, you know, we have data on parabens and their activities and their potential for adverse health.
- [17:29]
Marielle Segarra
All right, takeaway four. It's time for our personal care product audit. Look in your medicine cabinet, in your shower, on your makeup table, and see what you have. Emily's team did a study a few years ago where they asked people to walk through their beauty routine. What products did they use every day?
- [17:44]
Emily Barrett
You know, did you shampoo today? Which shampoo was it? Did you use floss? What floss was it? And in our study, we found that, that the average woman used about 19 products every day and the average man used about seven. You can even see things like people who use perfume have higher levels of the phthalates that are often found in perfume than people who don't use perfumes.
- [18:06]
Marielle Segarra
Another finding across many studies is that black women had higher levels of phthalates in their bodies than white women. Researchers have also found that personal care products marketed to black women, like hair relaxers and skin lightening creams, are more likely to contain harmful chemicals than other products. And researchers have evidence of negative health outcomes linked to these differences.
- [18:27]
Emily Barrett
This Was a pretty big project with lots of authors looking across, like many studies within the U.S. this study looked.
- [18:33]
Marielle Segarra
At phthalates in personal care products and food packaging.
- [18:36]
Emily Barrett
So black women are much more likely to deliver preterm. We know that they have higher levels of phthalates in their bodies. And so we were kind of trying to connect the dots between all of those factors to say, like, if we were able to lower black women's phthalate exposure to that of white women, would we see a reduction in preterm births? And so we did kind of like some mathematical modeling to estimate that. And it, you know, showed that indeed we would, you know, reduce the number of preterm births if we could do something like that.
- [19:04]
Marielle Segarra
So back to how many products we use every day. Remember that each of them might contain dozens of chemicals, and those exposures can add up. That survey Emily's team did, she took it too, and she found that she used an above average number of personal care products. So she started asking herself some questions.
- [19:22]
Emily Barrett
You know, I took a hard look at, like, why am I putting so many products on my body every day? And are these all really things that I need to kind of make me feel my best?
- [19:31]
Marielle Segarra
Some of this is just good marketing, right? Companies make us think we need their products, that they'll make our lives better or happier.
- [19:38]
Adena Janos
I think a lot of it has to do with society, media pressure to look a certain way, to conform to certain beauty ideals.
- [19:50]
Marielle Segarra
Earlier in my career, and also when I was growing up, I was told that I should put on some makeup to look more polished, presentable, professional. The same thing happens with hair, especially for black women. If they wear their natural hair, they may be called unprofessional. And Adaina says, even if an employer isn't discriminating against you for these things, the people in your life, your co workers, dates, family members, they'll often show you their preferences.
- [20:15]
Adena Janos
Maybe they're not telling you, oh, you need to straighten your hair or you need to wear more makeup, but it's their reactions to you when you present yourself a certain way.
- [20:25]
Marielle Segarra
So let's take a moment to acknowledge that a lot of us use personal care products to fit in, to be taken seriously, to survive. There's no shame in that. And Melanie says it doesn't feel fair that this is so hard to navigate.
- [20:40]
Melanie Benesh
These are products that we use every day, and these are products that we put on our kids every day. And I think consumers deserve to have the peace of mind that they know that they're safe and that there is a government regulator that's looking out for them.
- [20:55]
Marielle Segarra
All right, so takeaway five is to cut down on the number of products you use and make smart swaps. We have our list of products. Emily says now we can ask what.
- [21:06]
Emily Barrett
Do you actually need and what's sort of essential in your routine and what are the extras that kind of maybe you don't need and could, you could scale back?
- [21:14]
Marielle Segarra
Adana says keep in mind this is a long game.
- [21:17]
Adena Janos
Yeah, I think it's really hard for people to just cold turkey give up all the products that they love if they found out that they were more toxic than they would have liked.
- [21:29]
Marielle Segarra
Especially if a product is a central part of your routine or if it's the one thing you know makes your.
- [21:33]
Adena Janos
Hair look amazing, it's much more sustainable. To do it slowly, you can select one product, the product that you can't live without, and find out if that product is sort of non toxic or if it's really toxic. And if you have to find an alternative like a safer, less toxic product.
- [22:00]
Marielle Segarra
You can also make swaps. As you finish a product, let's say.
- [22:04]
Emily Barrett
You run out of your shampoo and you're curious about, might there be something out there that maybe has a safer ingredient list? Go on to the apps, go on to the websites, identify a safer shampoo and then swap out the one that you just finished for one that's maybe a little bit safer and go from there.
- [22:22]
Marielle Segarra
The apps and websites she's talking about allow you to run names or product barcodes through them and then they'll give you a safety rating. The environmental working group has a free one called Skin Deep. Another is called Yuca. And Melanie Benesh says EWG also gives products that it vets and approves a verified seal.
- [22:40]
Melanie Benesh
Those products have really been vetted by our experts and they meet our safety criteria. They don't include any of our ingredients of concern. They have good preservatives in them to make sure that they won't spoil.
- [22:53]
Marielle Segarra
As you look for safer alternatives, some things to keep in mind. Just because a product label says green or all natural doesn't mean it's safe.
- [23:02]
Emily Barrett
I think like, as the industry has realized, there's like a lot of kind of consumer appetite for things that are safer. There's also been this like greenwashing movement of like trying to suggest that every product is cleaner and better and safer. And I think there are probably a lot of false claims out there right now.
- [23:22]
Marielle Segarra
Also consider alternatives with ingredients that you could eat.
- [23:25]
Adena Janos
You know, I'm Trinidadian So the way my granny would use natural products, I think that's great. If we could get back to that. There are many natural products that could accomplish the same purpose as many of the products that we're buying.
- [23:44]
Marielle Segarra
Coconut oil and shea butter can be great for moisturizing, and you can often find those at the grocery store. Also, sometimes local farmers will make lip glosses or skin care products. There's a papaya face wash that I get in Puerto Rico that's made with all natural ingredients grown locally. Sometimes you can find stuff like this at the farmer's market.
- [24:01]
Adena Janos
I mean, we can do the same thing with, like, deep conditioners for our hair, right? Like, all the natural things. Avocado, olive oil, coconut oil, like, these are things that are healthy.
- [24:15]
Marielle Segarra
We're not telling you that you have to always avoid synthetic chemicals. Some of them work really well, and they're not known to cause health problems.
- [24:22]
Emily Barrett
That's like. I think one of the real challenges with this area is that, you know, right now all of the burden is sort of on the consumer to try to navigate, like, all of these chemicals, many of which have very long and complicated names. You know, wouldn't it be nice if we had a scenario where there was more regulation so that it's not up to us to figure out what we think is safe and what isn't, but it just wasn't put on the shelves if there was, like, potentially a. A risk to our health.
- [24:54]
Marielle Segarra
All right, it's time for a recap. Takeaway one, the safety of some cosmetic ingredients is still being debated, and it takes the FDA a long time to ban ingredients, so. So it's up to us to learn about the products we're using and make these choices. Takeaways 2 and 3, learn about the current ingredients of concern, including fragrance, which often includes phthalates. Phthalates can also be present in other products. There's also formaldehyde, 1, 4, dioxane and parabens. Takeaway 4, do a personal care product audit. Look in your medicine cabinet, in your shower, or on your makeup table and see what you have. And then takeaway five, cut down on the number of products you use and make some smart swaps. Remember, this isn't about being perfect. It's about making healthier choices. And a lot of this is going to be personal. It's about what risks you're willing to take and which products are the most important to you. For more Life kit, check out our other episodes. We have one on breast cancer detection and another on personal hygiene. You can find those@npr.org LifeKit and if you love Life Kit and want more, subscribe to our newsletter@npr.org LifeKitnewsletter Also, we love hearing from you, so if you have episode ideas or feedback you want to share, email us@lifekitpr.org this episode of Life Kit was produced by Claire Marie Schneider. Our visuals editor is Beck Harlan and our digital editor is Malika Grebe. Meghan Keane is our supervising editor and Beth Donovan is our executive producer. Our production team also includes Andy Tagle, Margaret Serino, Sam Yellow Horse Kessler and Sylvie Douglas. Engineering support comes from Arthur Laurent and Neal Rauch. Special thanks to Carmel Roth. I'm Marielle Segarra. Thanks for listening.
- [26:42]
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