
On Tuesday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a
Safety Statement and a
Recall Alert after confirming the presence of asbestos in cosmetic powder makeup products
marketed to young girls and teens, and sold by retailer Claire's.
The products were flagged after The U.S. PIRG Education Fund, a consumer
advocacy group, issued a
safety alert when independent testing revealed the presence of asbestos in the makeup.
The FDA performed additional testing to confirm the findings before issuing
the statement.
Samples of the following products tested positive for tremolite asbestos
during FDA testing:
- Claire’s Eye Shadows Batch No/Lot No: 08/17
- Claire’s Compact Powder Batch No/Lot No: 07/15
- Claire’s Contour Palette Batch No/Lot No: 04/17
Per the FDA’s Statement:
Claire’s has refused to comply with the FDA’s request to issue
a recall, and the agency does not have authority to mandate a recall.
The FDA is therefore warning consumers not to use these products and will
continue to communicate our safety concerns about them.
Claire's
website states they are pulling all talc-based products from shelves “out
of an abundance of caution”, but deny the accuracy of the tests
claiming the results "show significant errors” and "have
mischaracterized fibers in the products as asbestos." Claire’s
states it conducts its own testing at independent laboratories in the
European Union and the United States and claims its products are “compliant
with all relevant cosmetic safety regulations.”
Last month
The New York Times’ reported on the lax regulations governing the personal care industry following
Reuter’s December 2018 expose about the discovery and decades long cover-up of asbestos-tainted talc
in Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Powder.
Although House and Senate members have introduced several bills over the
years, corporate lobbying efforts and glaring conflicts of interests in
industry trade groups have contributed to the current stalemate. Industry
groups continue to balk at the idea of adding warning labels to talc-based
products and have “pressured governmental agencies to refrain from
listing [talc] as a carcinogen.”
The law governing the FDA’s oversight of cosmetic products, the
Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act),has not been updated since it was first enacted in 1938. The current law
does not require cosmetics to be reviewed and approved by the FDA prior
to being sold to American consumers, and further limits its oversight
to adequately monitor products thereafter.
To be clear, there are currently no legal requirements for any cosmetic
manufacturer marketing products to American consumers to test their products
for safety.
In the
joint statement FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb and the director of the agency’s
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Susan Mayne, the FDA express
strong commitment to working with Congress to “modernize the outdated
regulatory framework that the FDA has been operating under for more than
80 years when it comes to cosmetics” and acknowledge that “federal
rules have not kept pace with the cosmetic industry’s substantial
growth and a global supply chain.”
We all deserve to know what’s in our products so we can make informed
decisions about whether to use them. Congress needs to act and pass a
mighty federal bill demanding greater oversight to the existing unrestrained
cosmetics industry.