A new study has found that an alarming number of personal care products contain a known carcinogen.
Formaldehyde has been linked to cancer — but the chemical, and preservatives that release it, are often added to personal care products to extend their shelf life.
And new research found this chemical lurking in items like shampoo, lotions, body soap, and eyelash glue.
In recent years, the conversation about formaldehyde exposure has largely focused on hair relaxers.
Boston University researchers found that postmenopausal Black women who used relaxers most often had a greater than 50% increased risk of uterine cancer compared to those who never or seldom used them.
This new study shows that the problem extends even further.
“We found that this isn’t just about hair straighteners,” says lead author Dr. Robin Dodson, an exposure scientist at Silent Spring Institute. “These chemicals are in products we use all the time, all over our bodies. Repeated exposures like these can add up and cause serious harm.”
The study, published in Environmental Science & Technology Letters, had Black and Latina women log their product use for about a week, sharing photos of the ingredient labels.
The team team analyzed over 1,100 product ingredient lists looking for formaldehyde and formaldehyde-releasing preservatives.
Fifty-three percent of participants reported using at least one personal care product that listed formaldehyde releasers on its label. What’s more troubling is that study participants applied many of these products daily or multiple times per week.
Researchers found DMDM hydantoin to be the most common formaldehyde-releasing preservative, with roughly 47% of skincare products and 58% of hair products with formaldehyde-releasing preservatives containing DMDM hydantoin.
However, as Dodson notes, this list is not definitive.
“Those are just the ones we knew to look for. There could be more that we’re not aware of,” she said.
This research was part of the larger Taking Stock Study, a collaboration between Occidental College, Black Women for Wellness, Silent Spring, and Columbia University that investigates how exposures to chemicals in beauty products contribute to health inequities for Black women and Latinas in California.
While many women have learned to avoid beauty products with formaldehyde on the label, many are uninformed about formaldehyde releasers.
“We’re trying to do the right thing. But there needs to be more government oversight. We shouldn’t have to be chemists to figure out what kinds of products will make us sick,” said Janette Robinson Flint, executive director of Black Women for Wellness told
Dodson agrees that it is challenging for consumers to identify formaldehyde-releasing preservatives, as “They have long, weird, funny names, and they typically don’t have the word formaldehyde in them.”
Silent Spring’s website contains tips on how to avoid formaldehyde releasers and an app called Detox Me that is designed to help consumers choose safer alternatives.
To reduce exposure, Dodson believes companies should be required, as they are in Europe, to add warning labels to products that contain formaldehyde-releasing preservatives.
Better than a warning, says Dodson, would be an outright ban. “Ideally, companies shouldn’t be putting these chemicals in products in the first place.”
Dodson and her research team encourage consumers to advocate for better, safer legislation.
In kind, the European Union and at least 10 U.S. states have banned or proposed to ban formaldehyde and formaldehyde releasers in personal care products.
In 2023, the Food and Drug Administration proposed a national ban on formaldehyde and formaldehyde releasers in hair straighteners, but it has yet to be enacted.
