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A survey and health assessment of cosmetic products for children 8 Discussion
8.1 Risk assessment based on the analyse resultsBased on the results of the quantitative analyses of cosmetic products for children, a risk assessment of the analyzed products for their content of Kathon and benzyl alcohol is conducted. The risk assessment is conducted for the acute toxicity of Kathon and benzyl alcohol. The risk assessment shows that the Margin of Safety (MoS) is far from being exceeded, with one exception where a body lotion/cream has a content of benzyl alcohol resulting in a margin of safety of approx. 240. I.e. there is still no health risk in using the products in relation to the content of benzyl alcohol. In general, the following applies for the studied products that there is no health risk based on the analyzed content of Kathon and benzyl alcohol in the products. However, it must be emphazised that the risk assessment is solely based on the content of either Kathon or benzyl alcohol in the analyzed products. Furthermore, it must also be emphazised that the assessment is not based on allergy as the critical effect, cf. the health assessments in chapter 6. 8.2 The analyse results for packagingSelected products were analyzed for their content of heavy metals in the packaging material. All the measured total values of heavy metals in the packaging materials are significantly below the threshold limits indicating how large quantities of metals that are permitted to migrate from the toys when used. Thus the measured total values do not give cause for health concern in relation to the existing threshold limits for migration of substances from toys materials. For the same reason no migration analyses of selected products have been conducted. Other products were tested for a content of phthalates in the packaging material. The phthalates being identified were primarily DEHP and DINP. The total content of phthalate in the studied packaging materials was as a maximum 31%. All the studied products with a content of phthalates are designed as a cartoon figure, animals or similar of which some are assessed to be comprised by the rules for toys based on the indicative statement of the Danish Safety Technology Authority, while the rest are defined as child care articles. DEHP and DINP were banned from April 2007 in toys for children up to 14 years in a concentration above 0.1% - in the case of DINP only in toys which children may put into the mouth. Cosmetic products which are also comprised by the rules for toys and where the packaging contains phthalates are thus in discrepancy with the new phthalate legislation. All products were legal at the time of purchasing (spring 2006). 8.3 General health assessment of the cosmetic products for childrenA majority of the mapped products contains allergenic substances in the form of fragrances, preservatives and/or colouring agents. 74% of all products contain perfume but if the products without the declaration of content and the non-perfumed tooth paste products are kept out of the calculation 86% of the remaining products have a content of perfume. Approximately one third of the products contains one or more of the 26 fragrances mandatory to declare. More than the half (63%) of the products contains preservatives. Several preservatives are considered to be allergenic just like fragrances. 12 of the applied 23 preservatives are considered to be allergenic or potentially allergenic. Among the six most frequently applied preservatives five parabens are found which in rare instances are known to develop allergy (Denmark’s National Allergy Research Centre, 2006d) but of which some of them are being discussed for endocrine-disrupting effects. Correspondingly, more than the half (57%) of the products contains colouring agents. Some colouring agents are also considered to be allergenic. A few colouring agents which are considered to be allergenic are found in the cosmetic products for children and these colouring agents are only found in the hair dye products (rinsing colour) – seven products in total. The EU commission bans 22 substances in hair dyes as per 1 December 2006. None of these hair dyes are found in the mapped products for children. Even if the risk assessment shows that there is no health risk when using the analyzed products with a content of Kathon and benzyl alcohol respectively the risk assessment does not consider the risk of allergy. Both Kathon and benzyl alcohol are allergenic substances and products with these and other allergenic substances such as the other 25 fragrances mandatory to declare, other preservatives (such as 5-bromo-5-nitro-1,3-dioxane) and a few colouring agents represent a risk of sensitization. Therefore it is relevant to avoid hair dyes and perfumed cosmetic products for children if the risk of sensitization shall be minimized. 8.4 Recommendations on purchase and apply of cosmetic products for childrenSummarizing, the results of this project can result in a number of recommendations to consumers about cosmetic products for children. It is difficult to present useful recommendations to the ordinary consumer who not necessarily can understand nor remember long chemical names which should be avoided. However, to some extent it can be necessary as it can be difficult or nearly impossible to find products without perfume in some product groups. As an example all the identified soaps for children contain perfume and a general recommendation on avoiding perfume is therefore problematic. Recommendations to consumers
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