Cosmetic Testing
The Sun Herald
Saturday July 31, 1993
THERE was a time when food additives and drugs escaped the safety net of rigorous testing.
Poisonous mercury was used in teething powders and thalidomide, which causes birth defects, was used to treat morning sickness. The dangers realised, stringent testing of food products and drugs is now commonplace.
But although our skin absorbs cosmetics and we swallow untold amounts of toothpaste, mouthwashes and lipstick, little is known about their safety, according to Professor Geoffrey Duggin, head of toxicology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.
Prof Duggin estimates that on average, women swallow 4.5kg of lipstick over 40 years. He said more than 10,000 chemicals were used in cosmetics, yet only about 500 had been properly tested.
Prof Duggin is heading a committee set up by the National Health and Medical Research Council to investigate the potential size of the problem.
"We are looking at how you control what goes into cosmetics and ensure it is safe," he said. "It's impossible for us to test 10,000 chemicals, we would need a budget of millions of dollars."
Prof Duggin said there was no legislation requiring compounds in cosmetics to be tested. He said it could be significant that mostly women used cosmetics and that diseases such as breast cancer were peculiar to women.
"For too long, people have assumed cosmetics are harmless and that they simply sit on the skin. We now know that people absorb a lot of drugs through their skin," he said.
In the last couple of years, problems have been associated with two chemicals used on the skin. Acne lotions containing tretinoin are no longer available over the counter because the chemical was found to cause birth defects. And uricanic acid, found in some sun screens, was shown to affect the immune system.
From October this year, Federal Government legislation will make it compulsory for cosmetic companies to list the chemicals contained in each of their products. This is already being done in the US and Europe.
"But that doesn't help you or me very much because you need a PhD in organic chemistry to understand what the compounds are," Prof Duggin said.
He said the European Community was moving in the right direction by establishing a list of potentially toxic materials that weren't allowed to be used in cosmetics. Another list of approved materials was being compiled.
Although there has been an outcry against using animals for testing the safety of cosmetics, there has been little complaint about using humans instead, Prof Duggin said.
"When people say we shouldn't be using animals at all I feel like taking them to see some of the mentally defective and deformed children and saying this is what can happen on a large scale if we don't test on animals."
He said there was no need for irritancy tests which involved putting chemicals in contact with animal eyes and skin. "I would like to see that sort of testing go tomorrow. It only has marginal benefits for human health.
"We are talking about really serious diseases that occur in man and we are using these animals to make sure we don't get those things."
He said the development of alternative testing using tissue culture and bacteria could not insure against adverse chemical reactions within the human body.
"Ultimately you have to do some testing on laboratory animals. The interaction of different parts of the body is involved in the development of a cancer reaction. We can't get that reaction just from looking at a tissue culture."
Although some companies claim to have eliminated animal testing, Prof Duggin said most couldn't claim that the chemicals they purchased had not been tested on animals.
John Woods, head of the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association of Australia, welcomed the NHMRC inquiry, saying he hoped it would "clarify the situation".
However, Mr Woods said manufacturers and importers only used ingredients which had a history of safety.
"Lipsticks are based on beeswax and waxes such as paraffins, which have been used for years in medicines in doses equivalent to eating 10 or more lipsticks a week," Mr Woods said.
"The colours and preservatives used in lipsticks have been the subject of extensive safety assessments."
FACE UP TO IT
Revlon has already introduced chemical labelling. Its New Complexion Makeup contains:
Active ingredients: Titanium dioxide.
Other Ingredients: Water, cyclomethicone, propylene glycol, dimethicone, talc, dimethicone copolyol, sodium chloride, laureth-7, ethylene brassylate, glyceryl tribehenate, sodium dehydroacetate, propylparaben, methylparaben.
May Contain: Iron oxides, mica, ultramarine blue.
© 1993 The Sun Herald