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Major Cosmetic and Toiletry Ingredient Poses Avoidable Cancer Risks, warns Professor of Environmental Medicine at University of Illinois, School of Public Medicine

 

CHICAGO, Feb 22 /PRNewswire/ -- The following was released today by Samuel S. Epstein, M.D., Professor Environmental Science. University of Illinois School of Public Health. As reported on CBS Morning News Today, the National Toxicology Program (NTP) recently found that repeated skin application to mouse skin of diethanolamine (DEA), or its fatty acid derivative cocamide-DEA, induced liver and kidney cancer. Besides this "clear evidence of carcinogenicity," NTP also emphasized that DEA is readily absorbed through the skin and accumulates in organs, such as the brain, where it induces chronic toxic effects.

 

High concentrations of DEA-based detergents are commonly used in a wide range of cosmetics and toiletries, including shampoos, hair dyes and conditioners, lotions, creams and bubble baths, besides liquid dishwashing and laundry soaps. Lifelong use of these products thus clearly poses avoidable cancer risks to the great majority of U.S. consumers, particularly infants and young children.

 

Further increasing these cancer risks is long-standing evidence that DEA readily interacts with nitrite preservatives or contaminants in cosmetics or toiletries to form nitrosodiethanolamine (NDELA), another carcinogen as well recognized by Federal agencies and institutions at the World Health Organization, which, like DEA, is also rapidly absorbed through the skin. In 1979, the FDA warned that over 40% of all cosmetic products were contaminated with NDELA and called for the industry "to take immediate action to eliminate this carcinogen from cosmetic products." In two 1991 surveys, 27 out of 29 products were found to be contaminated with high concentrations of this carcinogen, results which were subsequently confirmed by the FDA. Based on this information, the European Union and European industry have both taken strong action to reduce or eliminate DEA and NDELA from cosmetics and toiletries. In sharp contrast, the FDA has taken no such action, nor has it responded to a 1996 petition from the Cancer Prevention Coalition to phase out the use of DEA or to label DEA-containing products with an explicit cancer warning. The mainstream U.S. industry has been similarly unresponsive, even to the extent of ignoring the explicit warning by the Cosmetics, Toiletries and Fragrance Association to discontinue the uses of DEA. Such reckless intransigence is in strong contrast with the responsiveness of the growing safe cosmetic industry.

 

Tom Mower, CEO of Neways Inc., a major distributor of carcinogen free cosmetics emphasizes: "I see no reason at all to use DEA, as there are safe and cost-effective alternatives which we have been using in a wide range of our cosmetics and toiletries for the last decade." During the CBS News program, Dr. Epstein, recognized NEWAYS International as the leader in marketing and distributing non-carcinogenic personal care products.

Faced with escalating cancer rates, now striking more than one in three Americans, the FDA should take immediate action to prevent further exposure to the avoidable carcinogens DEA and NDELA in cosmetics, toiletries and liquid soaps. Safe and effective alternatives to DEA are readily available.

 

SOURCE Cancer Prevention CoalitionCONTACT: Samuel S. Epstein, M.D., Professor of Environmental Medicine at the University of Illinois Chicago, School of Public Health and Chairman, Cancer Prevention Coalition/

 

 

Dr. Epstein is a professor of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois Medical Center and is an internally recognized authority on the toxic and carcinogenic effects of the environment, including ingredients and contaminants in consumer products, foods, cosmetics, and household products, He has authored 280 scientific articles and seven books, including Hazardous Wastes in America, and the prize-winning The politics of Cancer, and has co-authored The Safe Shopper's Bible(forwarded by Ralph Nader) and the Breast Cancer Prevention Program.