Can wearing lipstick lead to cancer?
Researchers who tested different types of popular lipsticks found at drug and department stores have found levels of toxic metals that can potentially lead to health problems.
"This preliminary study of metal content in lip products suggests potential public health concerns," wrote the authors of the new study, published May 2 in Environmental Health Perspectives, a government-funded journal.
For the study, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley's School of Public Health enlisted a group of 12 girls between the ages of 14 and 19 who were part of an Asian youth group and lived in low-income neighborhoods of Oakland, Calif. They were asked to record the brands and product names of all lipsticks and lip glosses they regularly carry and use at home.
The researchers then took this list to stores and purchased the products, 32 in all (8 lipsticks, 24 lip glosses). Back at the lab, researchers conducted spectrometry tests to determine the contents of the lipsticks.
They found detectable levels of lead, cadmium, chromium, aluminum and five other metals in the products.
Lead, a neurotoxin, was found in 24 products -- 75 percent of all tested -- and all examined products contained the metals manganese, titanium and aluminum.
Half the products contained lead in concentrations higher than 0.1. parts per million cap the U.S. Food and Drug Administration places on candy frequently eaten by small children.
Concentrations of metals varied greatly across products. For example, one product had the highest chromium concentration (9.72 ppm) and the second highest concentrations of cadmium, manganese, and lead (2.16, 35.3, and 1.25 ppm, respectively). The researchers did not find a clear pattern to predict toxin levels in terms of brands, color, whether it was lip gloss or lipstick or in the cost of the products, which ranged from about $6 to $24.
The researchers also analyzed potential risk for toxin exposure by comparing how often the lip products are used to the concentration of the toxins found in the products. Results were measured in term of average use and heavy use.
They determined the estimated chromium intake from 10 products tested exceeded acceptable daily intake levels when measuring average use. Chromium is a known human carcinogen, according to the researchers, that has been linked to lung cancer and stomach tumors through inhaling the metal or swallowing it.
Heavy use of lip products could lead to too much aluminum exposure for one of the products tested, and too much chromium for 22 products tested, and potentially dangerous levels of manganese in 7 of the products tested.
Cadmium, another metal found, is a carcinogen linked to lung cancer and damage to the respiratory system when inhaled. It's also found in low levels in drinking water, and the researchers suspect exposure through drinking water and heavy use of 10 of the products they tested may lead to too much exposure.
Estimated intakes for lead were well below their acceptable daily intake levels, even for high use, but the researchers noted children may be at greater risk from exposure since lead's effects are more pronounced in developing kids.
"Just finding these metals isn't the issue; it's the levels that matter," S. Katharine Hammond, professor of environmental health sciences at UC Berkeley and lead investigator of the study, said in a press release. "Some of the toxic metals are occurring at levels that could possibly have an effect in the long term."
The researchers say lipsticks and lip glosses may pose specific risks for consumers, because they are swallowed and absorbed little by little by those wearing them. They recommend blotting the lipstick after applying to reduce exposure, and called for tighter regulation of the cosmetic industry in the United States.
"As a group, these metals pose a host of potential health risks including damage to the brain and nerves, kidneys, as well as a variety of cancers," Dr. Ken Spaeth, director of the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Center at North Shore LIJ Health System in Great Neck, N.Y., told CBSNews.com in an email.
Spaeth was not involved in the research.
He said pregnant women are at heightened risk from the metals found in these lipsticks because they may cause neurological and cognitive problems for the developing fetus. Also at risk are young girls because their brains and organs are still developing, he said.
He said some of these metals, such as lead, may be unsafe at any level. He also called for more rigorous regulation of the cosmetic industry, predicting this likely won't be the last study to find toxins in lipstick without tougher measures.
"From a public health policy perspective, there should be zero tolerance for such metals (and other toxic contaminants) in consumer products, and personal care products, in particular," said Spaeth.
A February 2012 study by the FDA found traces of lead in 400 lipsticks tested. The agency said at the time the reports about lead in lipstick "are not new," adding the products are ingested in very small quantities.
"We do not consider the lead levels we found in the lipsticks to be a safety concern," the FDA said at the time.
"The report does not provide any new meaningful information,"Dr. Linda Loretz, chief toxicologist for the Personal Care Products Council, said in a statement reaffirming lipstick's safety. "The finding of trace levels of metals in lip products is not unexpected given their natural presence in air, soil and water."
"Trace amounts of metals in lip products need to be put into context," she added. "Food is a primary source for many of these naturally present metals, and exposure from lip products is minimal in comparison."
Ryan Jaslow is CBSNews.com's health editor
To live in Quebec is to become accustomed to daily reminders that French in the Canadian province is the most regulated language in the world. Try, as I did recently, to shop at Anthropologie online and you'll come up empty-handed. The retail chain (which bears a French name) opened its first Montreal boutique in October, but "due to the Charter of the French Language" has had its site shut down: "We hope you'll visit us in store!" Montreal's transit authority maintains that under the present language law, its ticket takers must operate in French, which lately has spurred complaints from passengers. Last year, the city of Montreal erected 60 English safety signs nearby Anglophone schools in an effort to slow passing vehicles. The Quebec Board of the French Language and its squad of inspectors ordered that they be taken down; a snowy drive through town revealed that all had been replaced by French notices.
Since the Parti Québécois (PQ), which calls for national sovereignty for Quebec, won a minority government in September, the reminders have become increasingly less subtle. In February, a language inspector cited the swank supper club Buonanotte, which occupies a stretch of St. Laurent Boulevard, Montreal's cultural and commercial artery, for using Italian words like pasta on its otherwise French menu. The ensuing scandal, which has come to be known as "pastagate," took social media by storm. "These are problems we had in the 1980s," says restaurant owner Massimo Lecas. "They were over and done with; we could finally concentrate on the economy and fixing potholes. And then this new government brought them all back. These issues might never go away now, and that is a scary sort of future."
It's true: despite the nuisances and controversies generated by Bill 101, Quebec's 1977 Charter of the French Language, the province had settled in the past years into a kind of linguistic peace. But tensions have mounted considerably since the separatist PQ returned to the fore. In the wake of pastagate, the language board allowed that its requests were maybe overzealous; the head of the organization resigned. And yet the PQ has prepared for the passage of Bill 14, a massive and massively controversial revision to Bill 101. The bill's 155 proposed amendments go further than any previous measures have to legislate the use of French in Quebec. Most English speakers see the changes as having been designed to run them right out of the province.
"Definitely non-Francophone kids who are graduating are leaving," says restaurateur Lecas. "If you don't have a mortgage yet, if you're not married yet, if you don't own a business yet, it's like, 'I'm so outta here.' But leaving is not the solution because when you leave, they win." In a poll conducted by the research company EKOS in January, 42% of the Anglophones surveyed said they've considered quitting Quebec since the PQ was elected.
If Bill 14 passes, military families living in Quebec but liable to be relocated at any time will no longer be permitted to send their children to English-language schools. Municipalities whose Anglophone inhabitants make up less than 50% of their populations will lose their bilingual status, meaning, among other things, that residents won't be able to access government documents in English. For the first time, companies with 25 to 49 workers will be required to conduct all business in French, a process set to cost medium-size businesses $23 million. French speakers interested in attending English-language colleges will take a backseat to Anglophone applicants. The language inspectors will be able to instantly search and seize potentially transgressive records, files, books and accounts, where currently they can only "request" documents that they believe aren't in accordance with the law. And no longer will they grant a compliance period. As soon as a person or business is suspected of an offense, "appropriate penal proceedings may be instituted."
Jamie Rosenbluth of JR Bike Rental is among the business owners who've had run-ins with the ever more bold language board, which already has the authority to impose fines and, in extreme cases, shut enterprises down. A month ago, an inspector asked him to translate the Spanish novelty posters that paper his shop and increase the size of the French writing on his bilingual pricing list by 30%. Says Rosenbluth: "I told her, 'You want me to make the French words 30% bigger? O.K., how about I charge French-speaking people 30% more?' It is so silly. Are they 30% better than me? Are they 30% smarter than me?" Since the encounter, he has covered the offending posters with placards of his own that say, in French, "Warning: Non-French sign below. Read at your own discretion."
The PQ is trying to reassure its separatist base of its seriousness as a defender of Quebecois identity. To pass Bill 14, it will need the support of at least one of the province's two primary opposition parties. In other words, if the bill doesn't succeed, Premier Pauline Marois of the PQ will be able to hold the opposition accountable and remain a hero to the hard-liners. The PQ knows that, in its present incarnation, it will never drastically expand its core of support, but it can galvanize its troops. Some of those supporters rallied together in Montreal last month to protest "institutional bilingualism" and champion the bill. Cheers and applause resounded when journalist Pierre Dubuc called out: "If someone can't ask for a metro ticket in French, let them walk."
Public hearings on Bill 14 began in early March at the National Assembly in Quebec City and are ongoing. "I can tell you that if someone came to Côte-St.-Luc to tell us we would lose our bilingual status, you will have chaos, you will have opposition of people you wouldn't think of who will take to the streets," testified Anthony Housefather, mayor of the municipality of Côte-St.-Luc, on the first day. "People are scared, people are very scared." By the time Quebec's largest Anglophone school board, Lester B. Pearson, came forward on March 19, it had already collected 32,000 signatures on a petition against the bill. "There are many ways of protecting French, and coercion isn't one of them," says Simo Kruyt, a member of the board's central parent committee. "Fourteen of our schools have closed over the past seven years. We are getting fed up. We are getting tired of having to fight to be who we are. English is the language of commerce and we parents believe we are part of a world that's larger than Quebec."
It's hard yet to say if the bill will make it through. The opposition Liberals have flat-out refused to support the legislation. The Coalition Avenir Québec, which holds the balance, has said that it might — if certain of the more controversial measures are "improved." In fact, the Coalition has only come out against four sections of Bill 14, and these don't include the provisions that would give the dreaded language inspectors new and extraordinary powers. In the face of such antagonism, it's no wonder some are leaving. Kruyt's eldest son, a bilingual 27-year-old engineer, is preparing to relocate to Ottawa, the Canadian capital that sits near Quebec's western border. Says Kruyt: "There, they'll appreciate his French and won't hammer him because of his English."
In response to this story published April 8, Quebec's Delegate General to New York submitted a letter to the editor on April 11 that can be read here.
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