Study finds cancer-causing chemicals in several popular beauty products used by Black and Latina women
Several lotions, cleansers and other beauty products marketed to Black and Latina women contain formaldehyde and formaldehyde-releasing preservatives, according to a study published Wednesday in the peer-reviewed Environmental Science & Technology Letters journal. These chemicals are known carcinogens, which means they can cause cancer or help it grow.
The study was based on surveys filled out by 70 Black and Latina women in Los Angeles. Each time one of the women used a personal care product, they took a picture of the ingredient label and sent it to researchers via an app.
Fifty-three percent of the women used at least one personal care product that listed formaldehyde releasers on its label, the study found. These women also reported using many of these products daily or multiple times per week.
The carcinogen was found in 58 percent of the haircare products reported, the study revealed. But women also reported using shampoo, lotions, body soap and eyelash glue that contain the carcinogen. Twelve of the lotions containing formaldehyde-releasing preservatives that the women reported using were from the same brand: Bath & Body Works.
The Independent has contacted Bath & Body Works for comment.
Formaldehyde presents an 'unreasonable risk of injury to human health' in current practices, the Environmental Protection Agency said in January. Previous studies had already revealed the carcinogen is in products to help straighten hair or smooth curls, and it poses a disproportionate risk to Black women and other women of color.
This week's study is the first to demonstrate that the carcinogen is in a wide variety of products beyond hair straighteners, according to the researchers.
'We found that this isn't just about hair straighteners,' lead author Dr. Robin Dodson said in a press release. 'These chemicals are in products we use all the time, all over our bodies. Repeated exposures like these can add up and cause serious harm.'
Dodson said it can be hard for consumers to identify which products contain formaldehyde: 'They have long, weird, funny names, and they typically don't have the word formaldehyde in them.'
One of the key chemicals to stay away from is the formaldehyde-releasing preservative DMDM hydantoin, she said.
Janette Robinson Flint, executive director of the advocacy organization Black Women for Wellness, called for greater government oversight of these products.
'We're trying to do the right thing,' Flint said in a statement 'But there needs to be more government oversight. We shouldn't have to be chemists to figure out what kinds of products will make us sick.'
The European Union and ten U.S. states have banned or proposed a ban on formaldehyde. The Food and Drug Administration even proposed a national ban on formaldehyde and formaldehyde-releasing chemicals in 2023, but it has yet to be enacted.
But Dodson said the best solution would be ending the use of these chemicals in personal products altogether.
'Ideally, companies shouldn't be putting these chemicals in products in the first place,' she said.
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I can say without any doubt that I've never been depressed. So when I began using weight-loss injections three months ago it was a huge shock to find that rather than my usual unhappy-go-lucky self, I sensed something new. Something really bad. I was depressed and I could only assume it was a side effect of the drugs. Within a week of my first injection I felt a deep despair, seemingly from nowhere. Nothing had happened in my work or social life to trigger it. For a few days I searched for a cause, confused and concerned about where this blackness had come from. Suddenly, to an almost absurd, comical extent, existence seemed bleak and irredeemable. It was like having the theme tune to 1978's war drama The Deer Hunter playing in my head on repeat. After the initial shock, I had to somehow find a way to recognise this state for what it was: artificially induced – the mental equivalent of fake news. 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Side effects are listed as nausea and vomiting, constipation, diarrhaea, reflux, headaches and fatigue. So much the same as a long stag weekend, rather than a continuous vigil at the edge of the abyss. The medications in question are known as 'glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists' (examples are semaglutide in Ozempic and Wegovy, and tirzepatide in Mounjaro). They were conceived as a treatment for diabetes and were later found to have beneficial effects fighting obesity. They may also help with cardiovascular disease and even neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's. They work by mimicking the effects of the hormone GLP-1, which helps regulate blood sugar levels and appetite. Dr Riccardo De Giorgi, Clinical Lecturer in General Adult Psychiatry at the University of Oxford is currently studying the effects of these drugs and admits that it is too soon to know if there is a possible link with depression, but suggests evidence points to a positive, rather negative, impact on mental health. 'The most recent studies available suggest that GLP-1 medications do not increase depressive symptoms or suicidality,' he says. 'These are based on drug trials where the patients were measured for depression 'scores' and psychological wellbeing, and they didn't show a negative effect overall. 'What happens if you are exposed to these drugs and you have a history of depressive episodes? In that regard, we don't have any evidence at all. There are now some more trials pending on depression, but it's very early days.' 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'Some forms of depression are associated with high levels of inflammatory molecules, in which case the anti-inflammatory effects of GLP-1 medications would be helpful,' he explains. 'For other people, who are less prone to inflammation, the drugs might upset the balance in the body that is already in a sweet spot, so the drugs mean you have 'too little inflammation'. A degree of healthy inflammation is needed for the normal upkeep of brain cells. GLP-1 medications seem to be able to enter the brain, so we shouldn't be surprised if we find there are other implications such as mental effects.' Even if a link was ever proven, which is not likely as things stand, it's hardly going to provide much comfort. Most recently, the icing on this doom-laden cake – the kind a goth would get for his birthday at a Dracula festival in Whitby – was that I began to have nightmares. A mixture of Franz Kafka's brand of horror and Stephen King's It, they were like video nasties in which the lead character shouts: 'This isn't real!' and tries to wake themselves up. After a couple of these, I had to set a deadline to get myself off this stuff. No chiselled jawline is worth this. Kate Moss once famously said: 'Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels', but, for me, it was a case of nothing feels as bad as skinny tastes.
