45 'High Hazard' Chemicals Common in Cosmetics Can Cause Cancer, Other Health Issues: Analysis

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Is your makeup safe? In a recent report, it was determined that over 40 common cosmetic ingredients were linked to health issues such as cancer, lung irritation, and more.

ChemFORWARD, in partnership with the Safer Chemistry Impact Fund, released its Beauty & Personal Care Ingredient Intelligence Report in October.

Based on the analysis of 318,000 ingredients found in 8,500 cosmetics, 1/3 have no public chemical profiles. In contrast, 45 were found to be "high hazard" and are linked to cancer, lung irritation, hormone disruption, and more health problems.

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But what is more alarming with this is that the harmful substances were deemed "common" in beauty and personal care items. Some of these are Cyclopentasiloxane, red 30, and butylated hydroxytoluene.

While public health advocates have been pushing regulations against toxic chemicals for products that come in contact with the skin, it became harder to address this issue due to "industry secrecy."

However, the industry sees hope in using this information to collectively remove hazardous ingredients from the supply chain, suggest safer alternatives, and create a "centralized repository" that contains access to hazard data through chemFORWARD.

Currently, the companies who are supporting this movement include Ulta Beauty and Sephora.