The FDA was petitioned by consumer safety, environmental, and children’s advocacy groups to reconsider the use of lead acetate based on data compiled since 1980 that demonstrates its potential for harm.
According to the petition, lead acetate is:
- readily absorbed through the skin
- capable of traveling to various organs in the body, including the brain
- reasonably believed to be carcinogenic
- is a known neurotoxin
After this petition, the FDA is set to ban the use of a lead-based neurotoxin which has been used as a color additive in some hair dyes for about forty years.
Reading the labels on cosmetics may surprise many after discovering that lead and other toxic substances can still find their way into many household through products of every day use.
However, the FDA recently moved to remove lead acetate from hair dye, forty years after it was initially deemed safe for use in cosmetics.
“We now know that the approved use of lead acetate in adult hair dyes no longer meets our safety standard. Lead exposure can have serious adverse effects on human health, including for children who may be particularly vulnerable,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said in a press release.
The FDA is giving companies one year from the date of their final rule to reformulate products that currently contain lead acetate.
Dr. Jacqueline Moline, chair of occupational medicine, epidemiology, and prevention at North Shore University Hospital, Manhasset, NY, praised the FDA’s action.
The FDA initially approved lead acetate for cosmetic use in 1980 when it was deemed safe based on the finding that it did not cause a “significant increase” in blood lead levels in trial participants.
Lead acetate is used in “progressive” hair dyes, products that gradually color gray hair. Progressive hair dyes are designed to be reapplied over a period of time, with each application darkening the hair further, until the desired color is reached.
Subsequent studies of these products found that due to regular reapplication, the dye was capable of contaminating the hands of its users, who then transferred it to different surfaces.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), lead poisoning can lead to brain and nervous system damage, slowed growth, and learning disabilities.
The CDC has established that there is no safe level of exposure for lead.