In
2007 a report announced a level of lead in lipsticks. A Poison Kiss, the title
of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics report, was the first of its kind to come to
the public’s attention.
The
United States Food and Drug Administration published an extensive follow-up in
2011. Its findings revealed traces of lead in 400 lipsticks (The Global Edition
of the New York Times, August 21, 2013). Both the FDA and the cosmetics industry
insist that levels of lead in lipstick pose no real or unusual health risks to
users. The levels are too small to be a safety issue, they say.
However,
lead tends to accumulate in the body, say researchers at the Boston University
Medical Center. Researchers also note that some users re-apply lipstick,
glosses and balms as much as 24 times a day.
A
new study has found that many brands of lipstick contain as many as eight other
metals, such as cadmium and aluminium. Researchers don’t yet know what happens
if these metals are ingested on a daily basis, although they don’t believe that
users should panic. The study, released in May 2013 in the Environmental Health
Perspectives journal, was conducted by environmental health science researchers
at the University of California at Berkeley. The UC researchers examined 24 lip
gloss brands and 8 lipstick brands popular with teenagers at a community health
center in Oakland, California.
The
2011 FDA study found that deep floral pink lipstick had the highest lead levels
while a neutral lip balm had the lowest. A European study found that brown
lipstick tended to be higher in lead. Saudi Arabia researchers reported that
dark colours averaged 8.9 parts per million (ppm) of lead compared with 0.37
ppm in light-coloured lipsticks. Researchers, health agencies, and the cosmetic
industry all agree that the metal contained in lipsticks, glosses, and balms - and
the effect of their daily intake - require further studies.
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