Dying to Be Fresh and Clean? Toxicants in Personal Care Products, the Impact on Cancer Risk, and Epigenetic Damage

The FDA does not conduct pre-market review of chemicals contained in cosmetics—which encompasses not only makeup but also numerous personal care products including shampoo, lotion, perfume, aftershave, and shaving cream. Every day, consumers use cosmetic products that contain a variety of synthetic ingredients, none of which the FDA has approved for safety but each of which are being ingested, absorbed, and inhaled into our bodies and accumulating in our tissue. Many of these products contain endocrine disrupting chemicals (“EDCs”), which emerging research links to an increased risk of cancer as well as immune and neurological dysfunction. This Article examines how the current risk-based regulatory system enables manufacturers to market products containing toxicants that cause preventable cancer while promising product safety.

In addition to increasing cancer risk, EDCs have the potential to induce both epigenetic marks and transgenerational epigenetic damage, increasing the risk of cancer and widespread adverse health consequences for future generations never exposed to the toxicant. This Article asserts that we have an ethical duty to enact precautionary regulations governing cosmetics that would protect the integrity of the human genome against preventable, environmentally mediated damage