Poisonous Cosmetics: The problem of lead in Lipsticks in Nepal

Abstract

Executive Summary: Cosmetics are being used from the early historical era but simply the form of the cosmetics and the way of using it was different. From the time immemorial both the men and women are equally fund of cosmetics. In earlier days people use to mix different types of chemicals and products to make cosmetics to be applied in their face which include even the heavy metals. Galena Mesdemet is one example of such cosmetic used in ancient Egyptian period. It is an eye product that is made up of copper and lead ore. Different literatures available prove that the heavy metals are used in large quantity in cosmetics during different time period depending in the products of cosmetics they wanted to use. And these cosmetics that have been prepared as heavy metals as there ingredients is very toxic to health. It may cause various problems like damage in brain, kidney, nervous system, reproductive system and even cause a cancer and death. Many European and African countries have baned heavy metals in cosmetics and even fix the standard. However, Nepal does not have any standards, guidelines or policies regarding the concentration of heavy metals in cosmetics or in any other products. There is no any government agencies responsible for regulating chemicals in cosmetics in Nepal. Therefore, there is no limit for such impurities in products in Nepal. For this reason, under this study the guideline considered for analyzing the result of lead in lipstick is US Food and Drug Administration’s 0.1 ppm of lead in candy standard since there is no exact guidelines for lead in lipsticks. This was the first ever study carried out by CEPHED in Nepal about chemicals in product especially in cosmetics to inform the wide users about the level of contamination and associated health impacts. Basically the study was done in very popular and most used cosmetic products: lipsticks. The concentration observed in these products were Lead, a very toxic chemical at very alarming level of health concern. 8 Samples of different most common and popular brand of Lipsticks were collected from different market areas of Kathmandu. The collected lipsticks samples were tested for lead (Pb) at Nepal Environmental and Scientific Services (P) Ltd, Kathmandu, Nepal. Lead in lipsticks samples were tested by AAS method. The result shows that the popular lipsticks available in the Nepalese market contain very high level of lead enough to cause different kinds of disabilities and problems in human health up on continuous use. The test result of lead in lipstick shows the alarming amount of lead contamination. All the samples of lipsticks have lead level higher than USFDA guidelines of 0.1 ppm. The highest amount of lead concentration was found in blood red color of MAC brand lipstick (i.e. 145 ppm, 1450 times higher than USFDA guidelines). The lowest amount was found in berry- berry 18 of Loreal Paris brand (i.e. 30 ppm, 300 times higher than the USFDA guidelines). The market survey shows that there is no any monitoring regarding quality, sell, import and distribution of cosmetics in Nepalese market. There is no proper labeling of ingredients in the cosmetic products and specially regarding heavy metals. So, general people are not aware of such contamination in the product they are relying on. Therefore, there is an immediate need to formulate a guidelines and standards regarding the heavy metal concentration in cosmetics to minimize the exposure of general public with toxic heavy metals as well as there should be some institutional arrangement to regulate the sector. The mass awareness about the chemicals in products especially in cosmetics needs to be launched.