Cosmetic Ingredient Safety - Part Three

Here is the complete article about skin care safety.



Paula Begoun’s information on benzyl alcohol, which I quoted last time, is a lot more informative than posting a risk factor of 6 (out of 10) with a 67% data gap and the listing “Violations, Restrictions & Warnings, Neurotoxicity, Allergies/immunotoxicity, Irritation (skin, eyes, or lungs), Occupational hazards”.



Sounds very scary, right? But look at each element on its own. “Occupational hazards” are relevant to those who may be exposed to massive amounts of a substance during manufacture or transport, but not to those who purchase a microscopic amount in a jar of skin cream.



“Allergies” and [skin] “Irritation” are related. Someone somewhere in the world will be allergic to any single element in the Periodic Table; but for most people the relevant compounds of the elements and the amounts used in skincare products are non-irritating.



I believe that, for legal purposes, there is an accepted norm which states that at least 1% of the population will have adverse reactions to any product, whether natural (like shellfish or peanuts) or artificial.



Tags: antiaging ingredients, cosmetic safety, carcinogenic chemicals