A New Study from Canada Reveals Heavy Metals in Most Cosmetics
This just in from our friends at Well+Good via our old hometown newspaper, the Montreal Gazette…
You won’t see heavy metals like arsenic, lead, and mercury listed on your beauty product labels. But that doesn’t mean your skin care and makeup is free of them. In fact, your best-selling Sephora lip gloss looks to be loaded with arsenic and other known toxins.
A Canadian environmental group recently had 49 popular beauty products tested for heavy metals, and was surprised to find just how many traditional beauty products (ie: chemically formulated ones) contained these “unintentional” ingredients.
Lead was detected in 96 percent of the products, arsenic in 20 percent, and cadmium in 51 percent, according to the Montreal Gazette, which published the report findings.
If these concentrations were found in milk, there would be a nationwide uproar if not a product recall. So why are these toxins tolerated in skin care?
oh my god i am so shocked theses people should shut down their beauty products business. We seriously need to find a way to get rid of these type of products from the stores so that the next generation can learn and get experience the right products for their body.
I really want to know the name of the 29 beauty products :(
96%? that’s 48 out of their 49! More than one person in the industry is obviously thinking “it’s just a little lead, not enough to harm anyone.” Of course if you’re wearing 5 out of the 49 items at a time, every single day…
And arsenic in lip gloss? Arsenic is toxic when digested, even in smaller doses it can make you ill. How do they think something you put on your lips doesn’t get in your mouth?
How does the exposure concept of wearing multiple products or using known heavy metals in products not reach these people? are they mentally deficient or just morally bankrupt?
Really, truly appalling. And yet not surprising, which is appalling in itself.
double u. tee. eff.
How do we find out which products were tested? Can you gals do some snooping for us? I tried the links in the article and they just were duplicates of what was just read. How can they write about all that is in there and not tell us what those items are? It’s like a snotty girl singing ” I know something you don’t know..” when she knows a dirty little secret. Can you find out please???
Through a similar article on Treehugger this morning (5/20) they had a link to the pdf file of the report.
The link is:
http://environmentaldefence.ca/sites/default/files/report_files/HeavyMetalHazard%20FINAL.pdf
There they list the cosmetics and what was in them in a chart form that is easy to read. Hope that helps!
Sure wish this was in more news sources across the U.S. and then a link to your book as well! :o)