Is our Cosmetic Safe?

The average female college student places a significant amount of importance on her personal beauty and everyday appearance. As college women, we tend to take very seriously our beauty regimens and personal care products, and we hope that at the very least we look healthy and attractive to our peers and teachers.

The young adult women is one of the most targeted demographics in existence because young women contribute enormously to our economy because of the cosmetics, lotions, hair care, and facial skin care products they spend their money on. Ladies, would you be surprised to learn that there is a significant debate taking place regarding the beauty products we use?

Did you know that many claim those beauty products are harmful not only to the environment, but to the women (and men) who use them? The green beauty movement is gaining strength and popularity, but what really are the personal risk factors involved with using unnatural beauty products?

One of the largest subjects of debate is the use of synthetic parabens in everyday beauty products. Internet is a great source of information on parabens and gives background information on what parabens are. Parabens are esters of p-hydroxybenzoic acid. They are not naturally-occurring chemicals and are, in fact, the most widely used preservatives found in synthetic products of any sort. Parabens protect the cosmetics against microbial growth and are, in short, preservatives for many types of products.

Parabens can be found in many different types of products, not just cosmetics. However, their presence in the cosmetic world is the reason they are under such a vast amount of scrutiny. They are found in makeup, moisturizers, hair care products, and shaving products. All the lotions from Bath and Body Works, for example, contain parabens. Looking at the list of ingredients will show you that substances such as "butylparaben", and "menthylparaben" are present in your products.

So how are parabens harmful? The topic of debate is whether or not parabens, which have estrogen-like properties, could contribute to breast cancer. It is widely known that the presence of estrogen leads to breast cancer, and many chemicals with estrogen-like properties are currently under scrutiny for possibly leading to breast cancer as well. According to American Government "The Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act does not authorize the FDA to approve cosmetic ingredients." The FDA does not regulate cosmetics!

The FDA steps in if a cosmetic is obviously hazardous or chemically poisonous, but as a whole cosmetics are not regulated. However, when concern arose regarding Parabens, the FDA conducted research (in 1984) regarding their safety. The research concluded that parabens were safe up to levels of 25%. Most beauty products contain up to about 3% of parabens. Still, a study in 2004 by Darbre in the Journal of Applied Toxicology found that parabens were present in breast tumors. The bottom line is, although it looks suspicious, as of now the FDA has found parabens to be safe.