FDA fails to protect Americans from cancer chemicals in cosmetics

Saturday, October 23, 2010 by: David Gutierrez, staff writer
Tags: cosmetics, chemicals, health news

(NaturalNews) The FDA is failing at its responsibility to protect U.S. consumers from unsafe chemicals in cosmetics and personal care products, the Cancer Prevention Coalition has charged.

"The Cancer Prevention Coalition reminds the American public that the 1938 Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act explicitly stipulates: 'Each ingredient used in a cosmetic product and each finished cosmetic product shall be adequately substantiated for safety prior to marketing,' " the organization writes in a press release.

"In the absence of adequate evidence of safety, products must be conspicuously labeled on their principle display panel: 'WARNING: THE SAFETY OF THIS PRODUCT HAS NOT BEEN DETERMINED.' "

According to the coalition, the FDA has not taken a single regulatory action in the past 60 years to reduce consumer exposure to toxic cosmetics ingredients including allergens, carcinogens, endocrine disruptors and nanoparticles.

Large numbers of substances currently used in cosmetics have never been subjected to safety testing for that use. Such ingredients are particularly worrisome because many of them can be absorbed in the skin and build up in the body over the course of a lifetime. Many cosmetics ingredients are also capable of crossing the placental barrier and damaging a developing fetus.

As an example of the FDA's negligence, the Cancer Prevention Coalition cites its own 1994 and 2008 petitions for the agency to take action against the use of talc for genital dusting, due to the well-documented risks of ovarian cancer. The petitions were rejected or ignored.

The press release also draws attention to the widespread cosmetics use of bisphenol A (BPA), which the President's Cancer Panel recently called a "chemical of concern."

"More than 30 studies have linked BPA to breast cancer, obesity, diabetes, and other disorders," the panel wrote.

The panel also rejected the "that neither a ban on the chemical or labeling of BPA-containing products was warranted" as "incomplete and unreliable."

Sources for this story include: http://www.world-wire.com/news/1006160002.ht....