Sen. Migden Wants Your Lipstick

Included in the California Senate Daybook on April 1 was a notice that California State Sen. Carole Migden is looking for women to drop off their "toxic lipsticks" at the senator's office.  No, this wasn't an April Fool's Day joke.  Next week, the state's Senate Health Committee will hold a hearing on a bill Migden is co-sponsoring (SB 1712) that would require manufacturers to report to the State Department of Public Health that they sell lipstick in California and provide evidence their lipstick was tested and doesn't contain lead.  Migden's office is looking for "exhibits" for the hearing, hence the call for the lipstick drop-off.

Migden's bill is keying off statistics released last year by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, an activist group that tested 33 lipsticks and found traces of lead in more than half of the them.  The group's report was long on misinformation and short on facts and context.  Here are a few important facts:

1)  Lead is not an intentionally added ingredient in lipstick.  Because lead is found naturally in air, water, and soil, it may also be found at extremely low levels in the raw ingredients used in formulating cosmetics.

2)  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has set strict limits for lead levels allowed in the colors used in lipsticks.  The products identified in the activist report meet these standards.  In fact, all of the products tested by the group also meet the very conservative California safety standards for lead established under Proposition 65. 

3)  The average amount of lead a woman is exposed to through the use of lipstick is 1,000 times less than the amount she is exposed to through eating, breathing and drinking water that meets EPA drinking water standards. 

The bottom line:  The potential presence of trace levels of lead in lipstick is well known.  The levels of lead found in the lipsticks tested by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics are far below standards established by regulatory authorities and do not present a public health concern.  For more information about lead in lipstick and cosmetic safety, visit http://www.cosmeticsinfo.org/HBI/31