Comments on: What Does Science Say About Cosmetic Chemical Toxicity?

By: Nurse_PhD

Nurse_PhD — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:56:14 +0000

julia, what’s happening is that European nations have long taken a different approach to chemicals than the U.S. The principle embraced outside the U.S., especially in years past, was “assume harmful until proven otherwise,” in contrast to the “better living through chemistry” approach in the U.S. While there were notable tragedies, such as thalidomide, in European countries, they tended to be more cautious about humans and chemicals.

By: julia

julia — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:29:00 +0000

interesting to me is that the european union has banned 450 chemical products commonly used in cosmetics and america’s FDA has only banned 6. what’s happening there do you think?

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:42:55 +0000

Sorry, forgot to include the link. Check out this blog for valid information on what is toxic in some cosmetic products.
http://mreblow.wordpress.com/2009/12/17/the-dirty-dozen/

By: thebeautybrains

thebeautybrains — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:42:18 +0000

@Cassandra – thanks for your comments. If your conclusions are not based on science (like those of toxicologists), what do you base your conclusions that there are dangerous toxins in cosmetics on? Do you have a special background that would make you more knowledgeable than the majority of toxicologists who come to a different conclusion?

Also, you’d be surprised to know that there are many human volunteers for testing cosmetic ingredients. Month long patch tests on human volunteers are not uncommon.

By: Cassandra

Cassandra — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:30:24 +0000

Well, I guess I’ll jump right in. My opinion: there are dangerous toxins in cosmetics. No matter what toxicologists say, I would say that 100% of humans would not voluntarily participate in a study in which they use a specific ingredient being tested everyday over an extended period of time- i.e. this ingredient could kill you. To my knowledge, testing of ingredients is done in vitro or on animals in large quantities over a very short period of time. I believe that most humans would not dowse ourselves in extreme quantities of phthalates as part of our daily routines. However, we do expose ourselves to small amounts over extended periods of time. In my opinion, no test other than one conducted in a manner that reflects the actual way an ingredient is used portrays a useful statistic of whether an ingredient is toxic or non-toxic.