Atlanta fashionistas, kissing a little (or a lot) on Valentine’s Day with your ruby red lipstick? A recent study by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration concludes that most lipsticks contain lead!
As part of their Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has conducted a study that found that most of the 400 lipsticks they tested contained at least low levels of lead.
Oddly enough, L’Oreal’s Color Sensational “Pink Petal” lipstick had the most lead, containing some 7.19 parts per million.
In comparison, a sobering thought is that children’s products sold in the United States are not allowed to contain more that 100 parts per million, though there really aren’t any safe levels of lead for children.
The FDA is also saying that such low levels of lead in lipstick are so insignificant that there’s really no cause for alarm.
FDA spokeswoman Tamara Ward has said that the FDA “did not find high levels of lead in lipstick. We developed and tested a method for measuring lead in lipstick and did not find levels that would raise health concerns.”
Also, lead was banned in making paints since 1978 because of its toxicity even at low levels, but it can still show up in tiny amounts in just about anything, including imported spices.
Finding significant levels of lead in imported spices makes sense, as in many countries, regular gasoline, rather than unleaded, is the standard and with lead emissions increasing with car ownership, not surprisingly, a lot of that lead is bound to end up in the environment and the food chain…
The FDA's conclusions from this independent study will be published in the May/June 2012 issue of the Journal of Cosmetic Science.
Yours truly is going to continue to slather on the lipstick – regardless. Oh, almost forgot Happy Valentine’s Day!
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