Johnson & Johnson Reformulating Personal Care Products To Remove Cancer Causing Chemicals

Years of public pressure has finally pushed Johnson & Johnson to ratchet up its efforts to remove several chemicals from its product formulations that have been documented as known carcinogens, hormone disruptors, and environmental hazards.

Photo courtesy of medicsindex.net.

Much of the pressure has come from an effort by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics in cooperation with the American Nurses Association, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and about 20 other parent and health groups asking the company for healthier changes to its product formulations.

Among the early complaints against the company, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics wrote a letter to Johnson & Johnson citing a report issued by the nonprofit coalition – No More Toxic Tub: Getting Contaminants Out of Children’s Bath and Personal Care Products – which documented laboratory tests that found chemicals including formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane (both highly toxic in large amounts) in Johnson’s Baby Shampoo and other products made by the company.

Both formaldehyde and 1,4 dioxane are considered to cause cancer in animals and listed as probable human carcinogens by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Johnson & Johnson makes popular global brands including Aveeno, Neutrogena, Johnson’s Baby Shampoo, Clean & Clear, Johnson’s Lubriderm, RoC, as well as local and regional brands like Sundown in Brazil, and Le Petit Marseillais in Europe.

As part of the ongoing dialogue, Susan Nettesheim, vice president of product stewardship and toxicology at Johnson & Johnson, responded in a letter to the campaign, saying, “While we would still disagree with the science and conclusions in your letter and report, we want you and those who count on our products everyday to understand our commitment to safety.

“Our products always meet and often exceed the standards of the agencies around the world responsible for the safety of personal care products in the markets where they are sold. But we understand that the bonds of trust we have with the people who use our products often means going beyond safety alone.”

Nettesheim went on to say, “We listen to consumers, and respond to their needs and values, and their desire for products that are more sustainable and gentle on both people and the environment. We are continually making changes.”

Johnson & Johnson is in the process of reformulating its baby and adult personal care products to remove the following chemicals: formaldehyde-releasing preservatives, diethylphthalate (DEP), and triclosan.

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California Finding Many Nail Products Claiming Toxin-Free, But Lab Tests Showing Otherwise

There has been a lot of attention given lately about toxic chemicals in nail polishes, especially those known the toxic trio – toluene, formaldehyde, and dibutyl phthalate (DBP). Many nail product manufacturers have either reformulated their products to remove these chemicals or just stopped making them altogether.

Image by Christy Thompson at Shutterstock.com.

Other manufacturers have only claimed to reformulate their products, but an investigative report done by the California Department of Toxic Substance Control (DTSC) found that, “Some of the toxic-free products actually contained higher levels of DBP or toluene than products which made no toxic-free claims.”

Deborah Raphael, director of the DTSC, said in a letter that the tests revealed that “most of the surveyed products were not free – as claimed – of toluene, which is restricted in cosmetics sold in the European Union. Most of the tests on the products that made the claims (of being toxic-free), in fact, revealed high concentrations of toluene, which may be harmful to women of child-bearing age.”

“DBP, which is banned from cosmetics in the EU, was also present in some products, one of which claimed to be DBP-free. Both toluene and DBP are listed as known to the State of California to cause reproductive toxicity,” added Raphael.

Regarding the toxic-trio, the report said that, “California has recognized that exposure to these chemicals is associated with cancer, birth defects, asthma, and other chronic health conditions.”

To obtain the data, the DTSC randomly sampled 25 nail care products from six different San Francisco Bay Area locations.

Twelve of the sampled products claimed to be free of at least one of the toxic-trio chemicals. However, the report found that 10 of these 12 products did contain toluene, and four of the 12 contained DBP.

“Toluene was found more frequently, and in higher concentrations in products with toxic-trio related claims than in traditional products,” said the report.

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