Media Coverage Continues on Lead in Lipstick

Media coverage continues today on reported lead levels in lipsticks, with media stories popping up everywhere from national newspapers such USA Today and the Washington Post to NPR to major news media stations like CNN to beauty blogs.

Last week the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and the Environmental Working Group issued press releases about an FDA report, released in late 2011, that provided details of the agency’s expanded survey of lipsticks.

On Feb. 8, EWG said it had signed a letter from the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics to the government’s top cosmetics regulator, Linda Katz, director of FDA’s Office of Cosmetics and Colors, regarding the FDA’s updated report on lead levels found in lipsticks.

According to EWG, the letter to Katz said: “Your new analysis found lead levels in lipstick more than twice as high as your previous report. As in previous studies, certain manufacturers consistently have higher lead levels than other brands. The most-contaminated brand, Maybelline Color Sensation made by L’Oreal USA, had lead levels more than 275 times the level found in the least contaminated brands, and more than seven times higher than the average found in all the lipsticks. Clearly, some manufacturers could be doing more to protect women from unnecessary lead exposure.”

The FDA report, which was released in late 2011, provides details on the agency’s expanded survey of lipsticks covering a variety of shades, prices and makers.

According to FDA, 400 lipsticks available on the U.S. market in the spring of 2010 were tested for total lead content. The selection of lipsticks tested was based on the parent company’s market share. FDA also included some lipsticks from niche markets in an effort to capture lipsticks with unusual characteristics.The expanded survey found that the average lead concentration in the 400 lipsticks tested was 1.11 ppm, “very close to the average of 1.07 ppm obtained in our initial survey. The results ranged from thedetection limit of 0.026 ppm to the highest value of 7.19 ppm,” according to the FDA website.

The expanded survey will be published in the May/June 2012 issue of the Journal of Cosmetic Science.

On its website, FDA states: “We have assessed the potential for harm to consumers from use of lipstick containing lead at the levels found in both rounds of testing. Lipstick, as a product intended for topical use with limited absorption, is ingested only in very small quantities. We do not consider the lead levels we found in the lipsticks to be a safety concern. The lead levels we found are within the limits recommended by other public health authorities for lead in cosmetics, including lipstick.”

FDA’s website also states that while it “does not believe that the lead content found in our recent lipstick analyses poses a safety concern, we are evaluating whether there may be a need to recommend an upper limit for lead in lipstick in order to further protect the health and welfare of consumers.”