Study finds most US children use potentially toxic makeup products, often during play

A examine by scientists at Columbia College Mailman Faculty of Public Well being and Earthjustice has discovered that the majority kids in the US use make-up and physique merchandise that will include carcinogens and different poisonous chemical compounds.

Outcomes are revealed within the Worldwide Journal of Environmental Analysis and Public Well being.

The examine, primarily based on greater than 200 surveys, discovered that 79 % of fogeys say their kids 12 or youthful use make-up and physique merchandise marketed to kids, like glitter, face paint, and lip gloss.

Prior analysis has proven that these merchandise usually have poisonous chemical compounds, like lead, asbestos, PFAS, phthalates, and formaldehyde in them. Poisonous chemical compounds present in kids’s make-up and physique merchandise (CMBP), like heavy metals, are particularly dangerous to infants and kids. These chemical compounds, whether or not deliberately added or current as contaminants, have been linked to most cancers, neurodevelopmental hurt, and different critical and irreversible well being results.

“There may be growing proof of dangerous components usually included in grownup cosmetics and CMBPs, and kids are extra biologically prone to the results of toxicants,” says examine co-first writer Eleanor A. Medley, who co-led the examine with Kendall E. Kruchten whereas each accomplished their MPHs in environmental well being sciences at Columbia Mailman.

“On this context, it is very important uncover how make-up and physique merchandise are being utilized by kids to characterize threat and enhance security,” provides Kruchten.

In response to the Columbia and Earthjustice’s examine, of the surveyed kids, about 54 % use CMBP at the least month-to-month, 12 % use CMBP every day, about 20 % use CMBP for eight hours or extra at a time, and a 3rd of them reported unintentionally ingesting the merchandise within the final 12 months. Over one-third of the surveyed kids are Latino and 65 % of these kids use CMBP. In comparison with different racial teams, Latino kids reported utilizing CMBP extra usually and extra for play.

This examine comes as some states, like New York and Washington, take into account tightening their shopper rules round toys, make-up, and private care merchandise.

“Kids are notably weak to antagonistic well being dangers related to chemical compounds usually present in make-up and physique merchandise,” says examine senior writer Julie Herbstman, Ph.D., professor of environmental well being sciences and director of the Columbia Middle for Kids’s Environmental Well being at Columbia College Mailman Faculty of Public Well being.

“Along with dermal publicity by the pores and skin, behavioral patterns akin to hand-to-mouth exercise might improve publicity to merchandise by unintentional ingestion. Moreover, kids’s small physique measurement, fast progress price, growing tissues and organs, and immature immune methods make them biologically prone to the results of toxicants.”

“It’s alarming that trade is being allowed to promote make-up and physique merchandise marketed to kids that include extraordinarily poisonous chemical compounds. Findings from this examine can assist federal companies higher perceive how kids are utilizing these merchandise and can hopefully spur companies to behave to guard kids from poisonous chemical exposures,” mentioned Earthjustice Lawyer Lakendra Barajas. “Sadly, at present little is being performed on the federal degree to guard kids from poisonous chemical compounds in kids’s make-up and physique merchandise.”

Co-authors embody Miranda J. Spratlen, Maricela Ureño, Anabel Cole—all at Columbia Mailman—in addition to Rashmi Joglekar at Earthjustice.