An urgent warning has been issued to millions of women after the carcinogen formaldehyde was detected in dozens of popular personal care products.
While experts have long been concerned about the presence of the substance in chemical hair-straightening and relaxing treatments, a new study has revealed it is in far more products than previously thought, including shampoo, lotions, body soap, and even eyelash glue.
Formaldehyde, a toxin used as a preservative, can escape from products in gas form over time – especially when they come into contact with heat – and it is then inhaled, causing anything from minor side effects like eye and respiratory irritation, to major health issues like an increased risk of head and neck cancers if repeatedly exposed.
These risks are heightened if an area like a bathroom or bedroom is poorly ventilated.
The American Cancer Society notes that in animal and human studies, formaldehyde has been linked to various forms of cancer including in the nose, the upper throat, the stomach and it has also been shown to increase the risk of leukemia.
In the recent study by the Silent Spring Institute – an organization dedicated to uncovering the environmental causes of breast cancer – 70 Black women and Latinas living in the Los Angeles area were asked to track their use of personal care products over a period of five to seven days.
Each time participants used a product, they logged the information using a smartphone app developed by Silent Spring. The app also prompted the participants to take a photo of each ingredient label.
The team analyzed over 1,100 products, looking for formaldehyde and formaldehyde releasing preservatives – chemicals that gradually release formaldehyde over time – in the products’ ingredient lists.
Fifty-three percent of participants reported using at least one personal care product that listed formaldehyde releasers on its label.
And many of the products with formaldehyde releasers that participants reported using were applied daily or multiple times per week.
The researchers did not divulge which products they tested.
DMDM hydantoin was the most common formaldehyde releasing preservative.
Roughly 47 percent of skincare products and 58 percent of hair products with formaldehyde-releasing preservatives contained DMDM hydantoin.
The team also identified several others, but exposure scientists Dr Robin Dodson stresses their list is not definitive.
‘Those are just the ones we knew to look for. There could be more that we’re not aware of,’ she says.
Companies add formaldehyde to personal care products to extend their shelf-life.
Formaldehyde-releasing preservatives are often used as an alternative but serve the same purpose.
Given that formaldehyde is known to cause cancer in humans, the study authors say the findings reveal both critical safety gaps in how personal care products are regulated in the US and their disproportionate health impacts on women of color, as most of the products found to contain these substances cater to Black and Latina women.
Dr Dodson explained: ‘We found that this isn’t just about hair straighteners. These chemicals are in products we use all the time, all over our bodies.
‘Repeated exposures like these can add up and cause serious harm.’
The cancer expert says one way to reduce exposure would be to require that companies add warning labels to formaldehyde-releasing products like they do in Europe.
She agrees it can be hard for the average consumer – and even chemists – to identify a formaldehyde releasing preservative on a label.
‘They have long, weird, funny names, and they typically don’t have the word formaldehyde in them,’ she says.
While warning labels might be a good first step, Dodson says banning the use of formaldehyde releasers altogether would be the best-case scenario.
‘Ideally, companies shouldn’t be putting these chemicals in products in the first place.’
Another way consumers can protect themselves and their communities is to advocate for better legislation, the researchers say.
The European Union and at least 10 US states have banned or proposed to ban formaldehyde and formaldehyde releasers in personal care products.
In 2023, the Food and Drug Administration proposed a national ban on formaldehyde and formaldehyde releasers in hair straighteners, but it has yet to be enacted.
The study was part of a larger effort called the Taking Stock Study, a community-engaged research collaboration between Occidental College, Black Women for Wellness, Silent Spring, and Columbia University.
The project investigates how exposures to chemicals in beauty products contribute to health inequities for Black women and Latinas in California.
Janette Robinson Flint, the executive director at Black Women for Wellness, says Black consumers live in a society governed by White beauty standards.
For this reason, she claims they use many different personal care products – many of them made with toxic ingredients – to conform to that ideal.
While they might have learned to avoid beauty products with formaldehyde on the label, many Black women are not familiar with formaldehyde releasers, the experts say.
‘We’re trying to do the right thing,’ Flint concludes. ‘But there needs to be more government oversight. We shouldn’t have to be chemists to figure out what kinds of products will make us sick.’
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-14687583/warning-cancer-causing-formaldehyde-common-products.html
