Congressional Hearing on Cosmetics Safety This March

Following all-too-real scares in recent months involving lead in lipstick, mercury in face cream, and formaldehyde in hair products (all three substances are known human carcinogens), the House Energy and Commerce Committee finally put its foot down and called an almost-unprecedented Congressional hearing this March on cosmetics safety—the first in 30 years

.

Such a hearing not only highlights the crying need for safety at the salon, but also enhances the importance of employing professional salon workers who are licensed and who periodically undergo cosmetology continuing education—for instance, a Wisconsin Cosmetology CE or a Kentucky Cosmetology CE—to update their knowledge of salon safety and safe, healthy beauty products.

“It’s time for Congress to overhaul the 1938 cosmetic regulations that are utterly failing to protect public health. Personal-care products from deodorants, to lotions to baby shampoos contain chemicals linked to cancer, birth defects, learning disabilities, and other health problems,” declared Janet Nudelman, policy director of the Breast Cancer Fund, pointing out that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t even have the authority to recall unsafe products from the shelves.

For instance, it took the California Attorney General, not the FDA, to force the manufacturers of Brazilian Blowout hair-smoothing products to warn consumers of the dangers of exposure to formaldehyde, which the products contained. This March, however, a hidden-camera investigation by Good Morning America discovered that all 16 salons the show visited did not notify their clients of the formaldehyde risk as required by law.

“There is a war on women happening every day in salons across the country, where salon workers and their clients are being exposed to harmful cancer-causing chemicals, and the U.S. government is powerless to do anything about it. Current laws are incapable of protecting consumers and salon workers,” railed Erin Switalski, of Women’s Voices for the Earth.

One concern that may also get some airing at the Congressional hearing is melanoma, a potentially deadly skin cancer, whose incidence rate dramatically increased from 1970 through 2009, according to findings of a population-based study by Mayo Clinic. The study revealed that the incidence of the cancer increased eight times among young women and fourfold among young men during that period.

The study used records from the Rochester Epidemiology Project, a decades-long database of all patient care in Olmsted County, Minn. The researchers included only first-time diagnoses of melanoma in patients 18 to 39 from 1970 to 2009.

Dermatologists, for the most part, confirmed the results, saying the findings mirror what they see in their own practices. They also fingered the popular use of indoor tanning beds as one of the principal reasons for the dramatic escalation of melanoma rates.

"Skin cancer awareness is up, and even though there is lots of information about the dangers of tanning beds, people still use them," pointed out Dr. Jennifer Stein, an assistant professor at the Ronald O. Perelman department of dermatology at the NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City. Dr. Stein warned that she herself is seeing many young individuals, mostly young women, with melanoma.

Cosmetologycampus.com, 360training.com’s portal for cosmetologists, offers a fully online cosmetology CE program (leading to a cosmetology license) that provides salon workers updated information on health risks, such as the cancer risks of UV rays from tanning beds.

---