A couple of years have passed since researchers in Oregon announced the startling revelation that some hair smoothing products contained an average of 8 percent formaldehyde. While that case and the enormous clamor that ensued improved the safety of those products, little has changed in the way personal care products and cosmetics are regulated.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which oversees this area, does not approve products before they hit the market, nor does it require companies to prove their products are safe, although many companies do perform safety testing. In the case of several keratin-based hair smoothing products, which the Oregon Occupation Safety and Health Administration reported in 2010 contained high levels of formaldehyde, the FDA issued warning letters to their manufacturers and issued public alerts about the products, but the action stopped there.

In the event unsafe cosmetics injure consumers, the FDA asserts it will take regulatory action in the form of seizing products or taking criminal action.

In reality, the FDA’s regulation of over-the-counter personal care products and cosmetics is a far cry from its oversight of prescription drugs, said Michael Wood, administrator of Oregon OSHA who oversaw the 2010 report.

“I think people do assume that there’s a lot more being done to protect all of us than government actually does and, frankly, more than government has the capacity to do, even if we decided that that level of regulation is a good thing,” he said. “I’m not sure that would be possible.”

Reduce your exposure

Although advocacy groups constantly urge Congress and the FDA to increase oversight of the products, Jen Coleman, outreach director for the Oregon Environmental Council said in the meantime, people should work to reduce their exposure, however difficult that may be.

“If there’s a product you really love and you really don’t want to give it up, well, maybe you can use less of it,” she said. “Maybe you can go with a makeup-free day once a week. Maybe instead of using three lotions, you can use one.”

Coleman said she’s seen, however, how great the barriers to reducing exposure can be. After the Oregon Environmental Council released a survey of Portland State University undergraduates about the products they used, it found the top 10 most popular brands — big names like Dove, Neutrogena, Cover Girl and Clinique — had 544 products listed as “high hazards” in the Environmental Working Group’s safe products database.

Coleman tries to educate people on the dangerous ingredients lurking in most cosmetics. Between 75 to 90 percent of products contain parabens, for example, which have been found in breast tumors and linked to reproductive issues. The FDA, for its part, says people should not be concerned about parabens in products.

And although OSHA’s research was restricted to smoothing products used in salons, Coleman said people don’t realize that many over-the-counter personal care products also contain formaldehyde, a chemical linked to allergy-like symptoms and certain cancers, such as leukemia. That’s because many products contain preservatives that release formaldehyde as they decompose, she said. Although the amount is far smaller than in the smoothing products, it’s still concerning, Coleman said.

Research also has found more than 60 percent of lipsticks contain lead, although the FDA does not consider that exposure harmful if used as directed.

Coleman said the FDA bases its position that lipsticks with lead are safe on the assumption that they’re not ingested.

“Anybody who wears lipstick knows that ingestion does happen,” she said.

But when Coleman presented all this information to a group of high school girls — a crucial audience for the message because they’re still forming their habits — most of them said it won’t change their behavior much.

“Most of them were like, ‘Well, you know, I’m not sure that I’m going to change my mind about it,’” she said. “And others said, ‘Well, we have all of these other things to worry about, from food and nutrition and all of these other things. Where on the scale do you put this in terms of concern?’”

Not just makeup

The lack of regulation is ever-present when it comes to hair product, said Dr. Nicole Rogers, a dermatologist and hair transplant surgeon in Metairie, Louisiana, who owns a private practice and teaches part-time in the Tulane University School of Medicine.

In general, people tend to put more stress on their hair than they did decades ago. Thus, products with common cleansers like sodium laureth sulfate and sodium lauryl sulfate have come under unnecessary scrutiny for being harsh on hair, Rogers said. Many companies are coming out with high-end “sulfate-free” shampoos, but medical literature hasn’t confirmed the usefulness of such products, she said.

“Now, people are getting their hair relaxed, they’re getting their hair highlighted, they’re getting their hair colored, they’re doing more to their hair than they were 30, 40 or 50 years ago,” she said. “That has opened this market niche for people to then say, ‘OK, if you’re going to choose a gentle cleanser, use something that does not contain those typical SLS-ingredients.’”

A push for safer products

As reports about hazardous chemicals increase in the media and elsewhere, consumer pressure on companies to offer safer products is making an impact, Coleman said. Walmart, for example, pledged to eliminate 10 toxic chemicals from its personal care and cleaning products, although they didn’t say which chemicals. That kind of move has enormous ripple effects, Coleman said.

“They’re No. 1 of the Fortune 500 in this country and they sell billions of dollars worth of products, which means that everybody who supplies them has to reduce these chemicals from their chain,” she said.

— Reporter: 541-383-0304,

tbannow@bendbulletin.com