New Scientist - July 27, 2019

27 July 2019 | New Scientist | 21

investigation, but its options are

limited. The product is still on sale.

In the European Union, people

are expected to report issues to

their national authorities.

Problems persist with other

cosmetic products too. Despite

this, Steve Xu at Northwestern

University in Chicago and his

colleagues found that, between

2004 and 2016, only 5144 adverse

events were submitted to the FDA.

Cosmetic issues

“What we saw was very low,”

says Xu, who, as a dermatologist,

says he sees patients with skin

irritation resulting from personal

care products on a daily basis.

“That tells me people are not

going to the FDA, they’re going

to the manufacturer, and the

manufacturer is a black hole.”

There have been attempts to

tighten regulation of cosmetics in

the US, but without much success.

In the meantime, researchers

aren’t saying that cosmetics are

unsafe. Just that their full effects

are unknown.

As for sunscreen, while the

recent FDA rules are due to be

finalised by November, it is

unlikely we will have the final

word on the 12 ingredients still

under investigation then. Michele

says the industry has asked for

eight of the ingredients to be left off

the list to allow for extra data to be

collected. “This is a proposed rule,

so it’s not final yet,” she says. “We’re

currently reviewing comments.”

In the meantime, if you are

worried about sunscreens, one

option is to stick to products that

use zinc oxide or titanium dioxide

as an active ingredient. These are

“generally recognised as safe and

effective” by the FDA. And taking

other sun protection measures,

such as covering up and seeking

shade in peak hours, is also vital. ❚

been done about which chemicals

in cosmetics can enter the

bloodstream and what their

effects may be.

Part of the problem comes

from complaints falling through

the cracks. If someone in the US

complains of an adverse drug

effect to its manufacturer, then

the company has to report it to

the FDA. But this isn’t the case

for cosmetics, meaning issues

can go unnoticed.

Take the case of hair product

WEN by Chaz Dean Cleansing

Conditioners. In 2014, the FDA

began investigating the product

after it received 127 complaints

directly from consumers. It later

discovered that, by this point, the

company had already received

21,000 complaints of hair loss and

scalp irritation. The FDA hasn’t yet

announced an end to its

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cancer,” says Harley. “But these

compounds are getting into our

bodies, and what’s concerning

is that there’s a real lack of

information on what the

consequences could be.”

Manufacturers can point to the

fact that all these ingredients were

deemed safe by the FDA and we

have been using sunscreen for

decades without seeing

detrimental effects.

“Back in the 70s, we thought

that anything you put on the skin

just stayed there,” says Michele.

“We never thought that things

could be absorbed by the skin.”

Similar concerns are now being

raised about the chemicals in

cosmetics too. They face little

regulation in the US and have

had the same level of scrutiny

as sunscreen in the EU. This

means that few studies have

▲ Penguins

Criminals always return

to the scene of a crime.

Two penguins were

removed by police from

a New Zealand sushi

shop only to return a

few hours later.

▲ Steep streets

Residents of Harlech have

been left feeling on top

of the world after one of

the Welsh town’s streets

was named the steepest

on the planet.

▲ Robot umpires

You’re outta there! A robot

baseball umpire ejected

a pitching coach from a

game in the US for arguing

with its decision.

▼ Airline tweets

A tweet by Dutch airline

KLM crashed and burned,

after it revealed the seats

with the highest risk of

death during an accident.

▼ Te c h n a me s

Need a name for your

child, then why not try

Google? One family took

this a little too literally

by naming their newborn

after the search engine.

Working

hypothesis

Sorting the week’s

supernovae from

the absolute zeros

More Insight online

Your guide to a rapidly changing world

newscientist.com/insight

As of January next year, visitors

to Palau, an island country in the

western Pacific, will be prohibited

from buying or using a range

of sunscreens. The country has

classified products containing any

of 10 commonly used sun filters

and preservatives as “reef-toxic”,

as they are thought to harm coral

reefs. Other places have followed

suit, and similar bans will come

into effect in 2021 in Hawaii and

in Key West, Florida.

Craig Downs at Haereticus

Environmental Laboratory in

Virginia and his colleagues

ran laboratory experiments to

assess the problem. They found

that immature corals exposed

to oxybenzone (see main article),

an ingredient that is commonly

used in sunscreens, die.

The corals became deformed

and pale in colour, and were

unable to eat, as depicted in the

images above. “Their mouths

just opened, and it looked like

a horror movie scream,” says

Downs. “They were as good

as dead in the first 8 hours.”

Sunscreen manufacturers have

said that lab-based experiments

can’t tell us what happens in the

real world, but more bans are

likely. “We have one reef, and

we have to do one small thing

to protect that,” Teri Johnston,

mayor of Key West, was quoted

as saying before the city’s vote on

sunscreen. “It’s our obligation.”

Toxic for reefs

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