Chemicals In Cosmetics -- The Database

The Environmental Working Group has released a database of chemicals in cosmetics and personal care products. The site is searchable in a few different ways, with a "quick picks" links. It's available at http://www.ewg.org/reports/skindeep/browse_products.php .

The site starts you out with the ability to find a product by category (oral/dental, hair care, etc.) by first letter of brand name, or a search by brand name. If you don't want to do that, you can also get a quick best/worst report for the categories.

I peeked into the bathroom to see what the soap du jour is (Zest) and then checked it out in the database. (Skin Care/ Bar Soaps). Products are listed in a table with the name of the product, category, score (1 to 10 with 10 being worst) and an option to add to a report.

I looked at Zest and discovered that the soap in which I was interested had a 4.2 score. I clicked on the product name and got a page of information about it. Out of the seven possible health concerns, there were two boxes checked: unstudied ingredients (12 of 'em), 1 allergen (fragrance) and 1 health concern -- magnesium silicate. I looked up magnesium silicate (it's hyperlinked on the Zest report page) and got two citations which seemed to indicate it was safe, but the page says, "Insufficient toxicity data to know if it is safe in cosmetics - data from a related chemical has been used to assess safety."

This didn't make much sense to me so I looked up another product, this time Noxzema Cleansing Lotion, Sensitive. This got a 7.9, with boxes checked for Cancer, Penetration Enhancers, Unstudied Ingredients, Harmful Impurities, and Allergens and Other Health Concerns. I looked up the ominous Cancer one and saw that Triethanolamine was the culprit in this report.

Triethanolamine's report page contained details and citations about the chemical's carcinogenicity, but seemed to indicate that its status as a carcinogen was undetermined or depended on what it was used for. The site does list citations for the information, with some reports available online.

I appreciate the idea of this site, but it would be good if some effort was made to a) delineate ingredients by their use in the product, and b) help those of us who are not chemists understand the implications of some of these reports.

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