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Survey and health assesment of chemicals substances in pleasure gel

Summary and conclusions

The product group covering pleasure gels comprises a wide range of different products that are marketed for various purposes.

The products can roughly be divided into 3 main groups:

• Pleasure gels sold as possessing special pleasure and performance promoting properties. That is to say, gel that promises an effect in excess of a glide effect, flavour and/or fragrance.
• Glide lubricants, i.e. lubricants that solely promise glide properties.
• Flavour and fragrance creams that contrary to the two above-mentioned types are not marketed as functional, but solely promise flavour and/or fragrance.

In this project, focus has concentrated on pleasure gels that promise an effect in excess of glide properties and/or flavour and fragrance. Therefore, distinct glide lubricants and creams that solely have a flavour and/or fragrance are not included in this project.

Besides pleasure gels, erotic massage oils are also included in the project's section on analysis.

Survey

The survey comprised the following activities:

• Contact with the retail trade. A total of 11 shops were visited; including 6 sex shops, 2 chemist's shops, 2 health food shops and 1 pharmacy.
• Search on the Internet – It has turned out that the shops visited on the Internet to a high degree sell the same products.
• Contact with sexologists. The contacted sexologists (practitioners and letters editors) only have scarce knowledge of the use of pleasure gel and they have only been approached a few times in that connection. On the other hand, the contacted sexologists have good knowledge of glide lubricants and their use.
• Utilisation of questionnaires – the questionnaire was shown on a Danish Internet Portal in a forum for debate that is directly connected to a Danish periodical for women. App. one fourth of the answers concerned pleasure gels while a larger part comprised glide lubricants and erotic massage oils.

Consumption of pleasure gel

It has not been possible via the contacted Internet shops to receive information about how much they sell and therefore it has not been possible to estimate the extent of the products sold.

Likewise, it has not been possible to carry out a quantitative survey of the consumption of pleasure gels via Statistics Denmark and therefore it has not been possible to estimate the total consumption of pleasure gels in Denmark.

However, the visited physical shops (incl. their Internet shops) have unambiguously expressed that the sale of pleasure gel is poorer than the sale of glide lubricants.

Selection of products for further examination

The survey resulted in the registration of 37 products, including 26 pleasure gels, 1 glide lubricant and 10 erotic massage oils/massage creams.

In consultation with the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, 22 products were chosen for further examination in the project. 15 pleasure gels and 7 erotic massage oils/massage creams are in question.

Chemical analyses

The survey showed that it was probable that the most critical substances were volatile, organic components and therefore it was decided that the analysis part should focus on these substances.

Due to the extremely varying composition of the examined products right from aqueous systems to glycerine and paraffin based products it was decided to use an analysis method with a starting point in a headspace measurement.

In order to obtain sufficient sensitivity with the applied analysis method and through that obtain the lowest possible detection limit it was chosen to use Solid Phase Micro Extraction (SPME) combined with GC/MS.

Initially, a screening was carried out with the objective to ascertain which volatile, organic substances exist in the selected products. The initial screening demonstrated more than 60 different organic substances. It was agreed with the Danish Environmental Protection Agency to quantify app. one third.

Quantification was carried out according to the same analysis principle as used in connection with the screening. However, another type of SPME fibre was used.

Tabel 0.1 shows the results of the quantitative analyses of the products with the largest content of substances.

Table 0.1 Results of the quantitative analyses of the products with the largest content of substances.

Legislation

In Denmark, pleasure gels are controlled by the Law on chemical substances and products. Due to this the Statutory Order on classification and labelling (Bekendtgørelsen om klassificering og mærkning) applies to this type of product. In this case it should especially be noted that from enclosure 2, item 2.13 of the Statutory Order it appears that products that are not classified as sensitizing but that contain at least 0.1% sensitizing substances require a special label warning of the content of an allergic agent and the substance has to be specified.

5 of the tested product contains between 0.1 – 1 % of a substance which by the scientific committee of cosmetics are evaluated as sensitizing. These substances are however not classified according as sensitizing. Therefore the producer has to evaluate and perform a selfclassification of the used substances. If this evaluation shows that the substance is sensitizing (allergy-causing) the product must be labelled with the sentence "Contains (substance). Allergic reaction can arise".

If the requirements in the Statutory Order on cosmetics (Cosmetics, 2006) had been in force, 8 out of the 22 products would have been confronted with stricter requirements to informative labelling and one product would not have been permitted as the concentration of 2-Phenoxyethanol was 10 times above the allowed value.

Health assessment of specific substances

Among the identified substances in the 22 products, 7 substances were chosen for closer assessment:

• Camphor is a substance that causes irritation and it might also cause allergic reactions. The amounts found in the samples will not give rise to health effects.
• Cinnemaldehyde may cause irritation and can cause allergic reactions. If the substance is absorbed through the skin the content might cause adverse health effects. The amounts found in sample 4 and 6 may for sensitive persons cause irritation to mucous membranes and skin or it may cause contact allergies. No further health effects are likely.
• Eugenol may cause allergy. The amounts found in sample no. 6may cause allergies by skin contact for sensitive persons. No further health effects may be expected.
• D-Limonene may cause allergy. The amounts observed in the samples will only to a very limited extent cause health effects.
• Linalool may cause irritation and can cause allergic reactions. The amounts found in the samples will only to a very limited extent give rise to health effects.
• 2-Phenoxyethanol may cause irritation. In one product the content was so high that health effects may occur.
• α-Pinene may cause irritation and can cause allergic reactions. The amounts found in the samples will not give rise to health effects.

Dangerous products

Product no. 24 is identified as giving a potential health risk (kidney damage) by oral intake or intake through the skin due to the content of phenoxyethanol .

Several products contain substances that may cause sensitization by skin contact and about 25% of the tested products contain a relatively large amount of these substances (products no.2, 4, 6, 27 and 30).

According to the Statutory Order on classification, all products containing more than 0.1% of a substance classified or estimated to be sensitizing (allergy-causing) have to be marked with "Contains (substance). Allergic reaction can arise".

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Version 1.0 September 2006, © Danish Environmental Protection Agency