People who use popular acne creams were recently warned about the dangers lurking in their favorite products.
A letter sent to the FDA by the independent laboratory Valisure found that levels of the carcinogen benzene were more than 12 times the FDA limit of 2 parts per million.
Benzene is a known carcinogen that has been associated with cancers such as lymphoma and leukemia, according to research by the University of California, Berkeley.
Despite its dangers, the chemical is ubiquitous and people can be exposed to it in the air of fuel-burning cars, smoke from secondhand e-cigarettes and even by cooking over a gas flame, Kelly said. Dobos, a cosmetic scientist at the University of Cincinnati. said the cut.
However, it’s not just found in the air: as Valisure discovered, benzene is also found in cosmetic products used by millions of people.
Below, DailyMail.com highlights four types of products in which benzene is hidden.
acne products
Benzoyl peroxide, an active ingredient in many acne products, can convert to benzene with heat.
Some of the products Valisure tested contained more than 800 times the federally recommended levels of benzene, in part due to the fact that the products contain a chemical called benzoyl peroxide.
Benzoyl peroxide is used in many acne treatments, Including facial soaps and creams that are available with a prescription or over the counter. It is usually in a gel that aims to reduce the amount of bacteria on the surface of the skin that causes acne.
When benzoyl peroxide is exposed to heat, it undergoes a chemical change and becomes benzene.
Some acne products that contain the ingredient include those from brands such as ProActiv, Clearasil, PanOxyl, Walgreens, Cera Ve, Clinique, Clearasil, Target’s Up & Up, and Walmart’s Equate Beauty acne treatment.
Reckitt, owner of Clearasil, said in a statement to DailyMail.com: “Reckitt is confident that all Clearasil products, when used and stored as directed on their labels, are safe.”
Some of these acne products, like Proactiv Emergency Blemish Relief, should be stored in the refrigerator as a precaution to keep them safe, according to the American Acne and Rosacea Society. recommended.
While others may not need to be kept cold, they should still be kept in a cool, dry place, as high temperatures can trigger the chemical reaction that produces benzene.
“Unless someone keeps their acne treatment in a car during the hottest days of summer, it’s incredibly unlikely that their product would experience that type of condition,” Dobos said.
sunscreen
Some aerosol sunscreens contain benzene, which they were likely exposed to during manufacturing.
A 2022 study In Valisure’s Environmental Health Outlook magazine, which sampled 661 sunscreens from 108 brands, benzene was found in 192 (or 29 percent) of the products at concentrations greater than 2 ppm.
“One brand may have very high levels of benzene in one batch, and the same brand may have no detectable benzene in another batch,” Kaury Kucera, Valisure’s chief scientific officer and co-author of the study, wrote in a statement. tracking document.
Unlike acne products, which extracted benzene due to their other ingredients, the levels in sunscreens came from impurities in the supply chain, David Light, co-founder of Valisure, previously told the Daily Mail.
The FDA has not identified the source of the benzene in these products, but said it could have something to do with chemicals involved in the manufacturing process.
“This contamination may be related to inactive ingredients such as carbomers (thickening agents), isobutane (an aerosol propellant), or other components of drugs made from hydrocarbons,” the FDA said. Consumer Reports in December.
“This highlights the immense complexity of the supply chain and the need to add independent quality control at the lot level to the existing manufacturing system,” Kucera wrote.
The biggest culprits were spray sunscreens and after-sun lotions and gels from brands such as Garnier, Bioderma, LaRoche-Posay, L’Oreal, Coppertone, Banana Leaf and Neutrogena.
dry shampoos
After it was revealed that many dry shampoos contained benzene, many brands pulled products from shelves.
70 percent of dry shampoos tested by Valisure in 2022 tested positive for benzene.
Nine of the bottles contained more than 10 times the legal limit of benzene. Like sunscreen, regulators believe the chemical entered the products during the manufacturing process.
Benzene was found in both expensive and discount brands, from Batitse and Not Your Mother’s to Pureology and Kerastase. These range from $6 to $40.
The review led to recalls from Dove, Bed Head, Nexxus, Suave and Tresemmé.
But other brands such as Church & Dwight, which makes Batiste, told DailyMail.COM that the results were inaccurate and left their products on the market.
“If you have been using the dry shampoos included in the FDA recall before they were removed from shelves, I would tell your doctor,” Britton Trabert, an epidemiologist at Huntsman Cancer Institute, said in a statement. institutional press release.
Hand sanitizers
If benzene comes into contact with the skin, it can still increase the risk of cancer.
In July 2022, researchers from New York University found benzene in 31 percent of the 200 hand sanitizers they tested.
The scientists conducted the tests after the FDA launched a 2021 alert Benzene warning in hand sanitizers, mainly those made in Mexico and China.
Valisure also issued a separate warning in 2021, detecting benzene in 17 percent of the 260 bottles tested, AND 21 bottles contained benzene levels above the FDA limit.
“As a scientist, consumer, and parent of five children who use hand sanitizers, I was surprised to see benzene present in so many products, let alone many times above the FDA’s interim limit during the COVID-19 public health emergency. .,’ Light, with Valisure, told Health.com.
As for how benzene got into the products, University of Utah Epidemiologists said it probably had to do with the way manufacturers purify the disinfectant. They often use benzene and benzene products in the process, which are supposed to disappear when the product is bottled.
Some of the brands in which Valisure detected benzene were Artnaturals, Scentsational Soaps & Candles, TrueWash, Born Basics and Puretize.
Four companies (Artnaturals, Scentsational Soaps & Candles, Star Wars Mandalorian and Born Basic) recalled their products from the market.