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The bubble bath and shampoo you’re using on your babies may contain a cancer causing petrochemical.

A recent found some bath products contained more than twice the levels considered safe by the Food and Drug Administration. Lab tests found the chemical 1,4-Dioxzne in products like Hello Kitty Bubble Bath, Huggies Baby Wash and Sesame Street Bubble Bath.

1,4-Dioxane is a petroleum derived contaminant that is considered a probable human carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a clear cut animal carcinogen by the National Toxicology Program.

The study results were released by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a San Francisco-based coalition of eight national environmental and health advocacy organizations.

The tests were commissioned by David Steinman, publisher of Healthy Living magazine, and are included in his new book “Safe Trip to Eden” which outlines steps consumers can take to protect the environment.

Many people assume the FDA regulates these products. Not true.

The FDA does not review or regulate cosmetics for safety before they are sold. Labels do not have to list chemicals in the products.

Dr. Devra Davis, director of the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute explains, “The FDA has no authority to tell us whether or not products are safe and as a consequence there are ingredients in cosmetics that are used very widely that have not been tested,”

The FDA has worked with the cosmetic makers to reduce levels of this chemical on a voluntary basis.

In 2000 the FDA recommended that cosmetic products should not contain 1,4-Dioxane at concentrations greater than ten ppm (parts per million), but 15 percent of products tested exceeded those limits.

Campaign for Safe Cosmetics says, babies exposed to the chemical form baby shampoo may be exposed to the chemical from bubble bath or other products.

That cumulative effect creates a burden the body can’t bear.

Davis explains, “Now we're beginning to realize that the sum total of a person's exposure to all the little amounts of cancerous agents in the environment may be just as harmful as big doses of a few well-known carcinogens. Over a lifetime, cigarettes deliver massive quantities of carcinogens that increase the risk of lung and other cancers. Our chances of getting cancer reflect the full gamut of carcinogens we're exposed to each day—in air, water and food pollution and in cancerous ingredients or contaminants in household cleaners, clothing, furniture and the dozens of personal-care products many of us use daily.”

1.4-Dioxane was also found in three women’s shampoos.

According to a 2004 survey conducted by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, women and girls use an average of 12 personal care products.

www.safecosmetics.org

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