Cancer-causing chemicals found in popular beauty products marketed to women of color

Cancer-causing chemicals have been found in a variety of women’s hair and beauty products, particularly in those marketed to women of color, a study found.

The study, published May 7 in Environmental Science & Toxicology Letters, analyzed the personal care products used by Black and Latina women, and found that more than half used products that contained formaldehyde-releasing chemical, a known carcinogen.

Cancer-causing chemicals in beauty products targeted for women of color

70 study participants photographed the ingredient lists of all the products they used at home over the course of a week.

Formaldehyde is a preservative that’s added to the products to increase its shelf life, but as the study says, “is highly toxic and classified as a known human carcinogen,” and was banned by the European Union for use in beauty products in 2009.

The preservatives were found in multiple beauty products marketed to women of color, Dr. Robin Dodson, an exposure scientist at Silent Spring Institute, which conducted the study, said in a press release. The chemicals were found in approximately 47% of skincare products and 58% of haircare products. “We found that this isn’t just about hair straighteners,” said Dodson, whose study found it in the chemical straighteners as well as shampoo, lotions, body soap, and even eyelash glue.

“These chemicals are in products we use all the time, all over our bodies,” she said. “Repeated exposures like these can add up and cause serious harm.”

Though the study was limited to Black and Latina women in Los Angeles, it does shine a light on how systemic racism can be driving health issues. As the research pointed out, “previous studies have characterized the disproportionate burden of [beauty product]-related exposures among Black women and Latinas. Hair straighteners are used more often by Black women compared to White women: hair discrimination and racialized beauty standards often drive use of hair-straightening products to better ensure social and economic opportunity.”

How to prevent

Dodson says one way to reduce exposures would be to require that companies add warning labels on products that contain formaldehyde-releasing chemicals, like DMDM hydantoin, which was the most commonly found one. She agrees that it can be hard for the average consumer—and even chemists—to identify a formaldehyde-releasing preservative on a label. “They have long, weird, funny names, and they typically don’t have the word formaldehyde in them,” she says.

While warning labels might be a good first step, Dodson says banning the use of formaldehyde releasers altogether would be the best-case scenario. “Ideally, companies shouldn’t be putting these chemicals in products in the first place.”