Summary
Recent federal analysis shows that 400 shades of popular lipstick contained traces amounts of lead, which has exacerbated an ongoing dispute between regulators ad consumer activists over how much lead is safe in cosmetics. Five lipsticks made by L'Oreal and Maybelline, ranked among the top 10 most contaminated of cosmetics, according to testing by the Food and Drug Administration. As for Cover Girl and NARS; two lipsticks from each brand also landed in the top 10. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has been pushing the government to set limits for lead levels in lipstick for years now. In 2008, after reports on lead in lipsticks, the state attorney general's office examined whether cosmetics firms had run afoul of California law that requires businesses to provide a reasonable warning if they knowingly expose consumers to chemicals that can cause cancer or reproductive harm. The FDA's study the overwhelming majority of the lipsticks that fell below that threshold. But two exceeded it Maybelline's Pink Petal and L'Oreal's Colour Riche Volcanic. Still no further action had been taken by the California attorney general's office. The lead content in Maybelline's Pink Petal is more than twice as high as levels found in the previous FDA report and more than 275 times the level found in the least contaminated product in the recent report, the group wrote in a letter to the agency this month. The least contaminated product Wet'n'Wild Mega Mixers Lip Balm was also the least expensive, the group said in a separate statement, "demonstrating that price is not an indicator of good manufacturing practices".
Recent federal analysis shows that 400 shades of popular lipstick contained traces amounts of lead, which has exacerbated an ongoing dispute between regulators ad consumer activists over how much lead is safe in cosmetics. Five lipsticks made by L'Oreal and Maybelline, ranked among the top 10 most contaminated of cosmetics, according to testing by the Food and Drug Administration. As for Cover Girl and NARS; two lipsticks from each brand also landed in the top 10. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has been pushing the government to set limits for lead levels in lipstick for years now. In 2008, after reports on lead in lipsticks, the state attorney general's office examined whether cosmetics firms had run afoul of California law that requires businesses to provide a reasonable warning if they knowingly expose consumers to chemicals that can cause cancer or reproductive harm. The FDA's study the overwhelming majority of the lipsticks that fell below that threshold. But two exceeded it Maybelline's Pink Petal and L'Oreal's Colour Riche Volcanic. Still no further action had been taken by the California attorney general's office. The lead content in Maybelline's Pink Petal is more than twice as high as levels found in the previous FDA report and more than 275 times the level found in the least contaminated product in the recent report, the group wrote in a letter to the agency this month. The least contaminated product Wet'n'Wild Mega Mixers Lip Balm was also the least expensive, the group said in a separate statement, "demonstrating that price is not an indicator of good manufacturing practices".
Reflection
For someone like me who doesn't really use L'Oreal or Maybelline lipsticks I still think that it's not ok for companies to "toxin" people who buy their products. Especially when their products cost like 10 dollars, which is expensive for a lipstick. I know that many women buy and use lipstick to look beautiful but if they were to be told about what the lipstick contains before buying it. Those women would have to rethink and ask themselves if they really what to put themselves at risk for something that is linked to cancer.
For someone like me who doesn't really use L'Oreal or Maybelline lipsticks I still think that it's not ok for companies to "toxin" people who buy their products. Especially when their products cost like 10 dollars, which is expensive for a lipstick. I know that many women buy and use lipstick to look beautiful but if they were to be told about what the lipstick contains before buying it. Those women would have to rethink and ask themselves if they really what to put themselves at risk for something that is linked to cancer.