Lead Lipstick

Skin Deep is an online safety guide for cosmetics and personal care products with the related ingredients.
Skin Deep provides a database containig ingredients, products, brands, companies, hazards, testing availability, and regulatory status.
Currently there are 885 Lipsticks listed in the database sorted by Hazard Score.

So safe lipsticks are the minor part of all the leapsticks in the market!

Someone needs to answer the question of how much lead in lipstick is too much and puts a product in the danger category.
Currently Food and Drug Administration has no regulation for the amount of lead in lipsticks and other cosmetics.
In this way, U.S. Senators John Kerry along with senators Barbara Boxter and Dianne Feinstein is aiding the campaign to rid lipsticks with higher-than-legal limits of lead content in them.
They wrote a letter to the FDA to investigate products reported by Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and retest all products included in the report.
It can be unfair to make a direct comparison between lead levels in food and lipstick, that the amount of lipstick one ingests normally is much smaller than if consumed. However, lead builds up in the body over time, applied every day, can add up to significant exposure levels.

“Lead does not have as toxic an effect in the body in more mature women as in younger women” Wei Zheng (a professor and Purdue University expert that studies the toxic effects of heavy metals on the brain.) says.
“On a daily use basis, especially in younger girls, this could be a real cause for concern.”

“With lipstick, you don’t have those extra layers of safety” Zheng says. “Every time you lick your lips, you’re basically eating the lead.“

Prized for its ability to reflect light, lead is most often added to paints to produce bright, lustrous colors.

“The best bet for consumers is to read packaging very carefully” Zheng says. “It may not be listed on a small tube, but look at the back of the box. I don’t think people should panic, but this issue should be taken seriously.“

Source

Chemicals linked to cancer and birth defects do not belong in cosmetics, period. Lead like the others chemicals present in any one cosmetic product are unlikely to cause harm. But none of us use just one product. Think about how many products you use in a single day—from toothpaste to soap, shampoo, hair conditioner, deodorant, body lotion, shaving products and makeup—and how many products you use in a year, and over a lifetime. Small amounts of toxic chemicals add up and can accumulate in our bodies through cosmetic use and through other chemical exposures in food, water and air. Chemicals linked to cancer and birth defects do not belong in personal care products, period.

Read More from SafeCosmetic.org

 The Food and Drug Administration will review an advocacy group’s findings that some lipsticks contain potentially dangerous levels of lead.
The Food and Drug Administration has announced on Friday Oct 12, 2007 that it will be looking into claims that some lipstick brands contain detectable levels of the metal lead. This announcement follows claims by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics that 1/3 of branded lipsticks manufactured in the United States had lead content that could be hazardous to health.

The FDA “will need to confirm the factual basis of these reports independently in order to determine what action, if any, may be needed to protect public health,” said agency spokeswoman Stephanie Kwisnek. She added that the FDA had collected the brands used for the tests.

Lead is a naturally common metal. Unfortunately, it is extremely toxic when absorbed into the human body, especially for young people who are still growing and developing. Lead can affect almost every organ system, but it’s particularly damaging to the brain and central nervous system and it can cause brain damage and behavioral problems such as lowered IQ, reduced school performance and increased aggression. Lead may cause irreversible neurological damage as well as renal disease, cardiovascular effects, and reproductive toxicity.
Pregnant women and young children are particularly vulnerable to lead exposure. Lead easily crosses the placenta and enters the fetal brain where it can interfere with normal development. Lead does not break down in the body, but builds up over a lifetime of exposures.

Lead is not biodegradable, and therefore it hangs around the environment for a long time. Lead poisoning is diagnosed by a simple blood test. Simple ways to minimize exposure and absorption of lead also include washing hands carefully before meals and getting a lot of calcium and iron in your diet.

More from Wikipedia

“Despite continuous allegations over the years, lead is not intentionally added to cosmetics. Lead is a naturally occurring element that is found everywhere in the environment.  Consumers are exposed daily to lead when they eat, drink water and breathe the air. The average amount of lead a woman would be exposed to when using cosmetics is 1,000 times less than the amount she would get from eating, breathing, and drinking water that meets Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) drinking water standards.

“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has set daily safe levels for lead exposure for adults, children and pregnant women.  The agency also has set strict limits for lead levels allowed in the colors used in lipsticks, and actually analyze most of these to ensure they are followed.  The products identified in the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics (CSC) report meet these standards.  In fact, all the products tested in the CSC report meet the California standards for safety established under their Prop 65 process.

“Despite the negligible levels of lead found in some lipsticks, cosmetic companies are committed to reducing that level even further.  For decades, cosmetic companies have worked to minimize all product contamination, including lead.  They actively and continually review all raw materials to ensure that they contain the lowest levels of impurities possible.   Cosmetic companies have some of the world’s leading chemists, toxicologists, and biologists to evaluate all the safety information.”

 Full Article

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics released on Oct 11, 2007 the product test results that found that more than half of 33 brand-name lipsticks tested contained lead.
20 of 33 red brand-name lipsticks contained a level of lead exceeding 0.1 parts per million (ppm) according to The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. Lipstick doesn’t have a lead standard but 0.1 ppm is the limit for candy, a standard established to protect children from directly ingesting lead. Lipstick, like candy, can ingested directly into the body.
More than half of 33 top-brand lipsticks tested (61%) contained detectable levels of lead, with levels ranging from 0.03 to 0.65 parts per million (ppm).Though none lead as an ingredient!
39% of the products tested had no detectable levels of lead.
The tests reveal that lead is commonly found in lipstick, and that companies are making products with lead levels all over the board.

List of the tested lipsticks:

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