FRIGHTFUL 15: #13 FORMALDEHYDE AND FORMALDEHYDE-RELEASING AGENTS

National Cancer Institute | Unsplash

What Is It and Why in Skincare and Personal Care Products?

These compounds are used in many personal care products, but particularly in shampoos and liquid baby soaps. They help prevent microbes from growing in water-based products.

 

So What’s So Bad?

The International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies small amounts of formaldehyde, which are slowly and continuously released, as a known human carcinogen. Laboratory studies suggest that formaldehyde in cosmetics can also be absorbed through the skin.

 

Formaldehyde may off-gas from cosmetics (especially if they’ve been sitting on your bathroom shelf for a while) containing the following ingredients and be inhaled. Most of the cancer research on formaldehyde has focused on risks from inhalation. Look for these:

  • DMDM hydantoin

  • diazolidinyl urea

  • imidazolidinyl urea

  • methenamine

  • quarternium-15

  • sodium hydroxymethylglycinate

Check the labels of all your personal care products in your bathroom and cabinets.

 

VERDAUD does not contain any of these ingredients.

Reference:

https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/substances/formaldehyde/formaldehyde-fact-sheet#:~:text=Since%20that%20time%2C%20some%20studies,a%20human%20carcinogen%20(2).

Barbara PaprockComment