Friends of the Earth eNews

PRESS STATEMENT

May 16, 2006

Statement of Lisa Archer

Senior Campaigner, Health and Environment Program, Friends of the Earth

Report Release: “Nanomaterials, Sunscreens and Cosmetics: Small Ingredients, Big Risks,”

Good morning. My name is Lisa Archer and I am Senior Health and Environment Campaigner for Friends of the Earth U.S., a national non-profit environmental advocacy organization with member groups in 70 countries around the world. I would like to welcome you to the release of our report: Nanomaterials, Sunscreens and Cosmetics: Small Ingredients, Big Risks.

Asbestos…DDT…PCBs…an alphabet soup of chemicals has been introduced into the environment before science understood their toxic impact on our health and the environment.  Unfortunately, failing to learn from lessons past, companies that manufacture personnel care products are in the process of taking us down the same pathway with the rapid and careless introduction of engineered nanoparticles into their products, despite the many red flags emerging on nanomaterials’ health and environmental risks. From sunscreens and anti-aging creams to toothpastes, we have found that engineered nanoparticles are being used in virtually every type of personal care product on the market.  Through an extensive search of publicly available data, Friends of the Earth has found 116 personnel care products currently on the market containing nano-particles, and we believe that this is a conservative estimate.

Some of the biggest names in cosmetics, including L’Oreal, Revlon and Estee Lauder, are currently manufacturing and marketing nanoparticle-laced products.  Despite the growing evidence that nano-ingredients can be toxic to humans, these companies and others are selling these products without labels or warnings informing consumers of the presence of these untested nano-ingredients.  These companies are literally treating their customers like guinea pigs.

There is plenty of reason to be cautious about personal care products that contain nanomaterials.  One of the oldest and most respected scientific bodes in the world, the Royal Society, has recommended that nano-ingredients should undergo a full safety assessment before being permitted for use in products. Despite this and other warnings, companies are not required to subject nano-particles to independent safety testing prior to their use in commercial products. Two-years after the Royal Society released its recommendations, there are no laws governing the use of nanomaterials in consumer products to ensure they do not cause harm to the public using them, workers producing them, or environmental systems into which waste nanoproducts are released.   

Nowhere are nanomaterials entering consumer products faster than in the personal care and cosmetics industry. The intimate daily use of cosmetics and personal care products poses a clear risk of exposure to untested nanomaterials because these products are used daily and are designed to be used directly on the skin. They may be inhaled and are often ingested. Because of their size, nanoparticles are more readily taken up by the human body than larger particles and are able to cross biological membranes and access cells, tissues and organs that larger particles cannot. The existing body of toxicological literature indicates that nanoparticles generally have a greater risk of toxicity than larger particles.

Friends of the Earth found that cosmetics companies are using nano-ingredients designed to penetrate deep into the layers of skin. Nano-scale metal oxides such as titanium dioxide and zinc oxide, carbon spheres called “fullerenes,” and “nanocapsules” are among the untested, unregulated ingredients currently being used.  Disturbingly, seven face creams in our inventory list carbon spheres called “fullerenes,” as ingredients – a substance found to cause brain damage in Fish and toxic effects in human liver cells.

Nanoscale titanium and zinc dioxide should give summer sunbathers reason to worry.  These nanomaterials, used to make sunscreens transparent, have been shown to cause DNA damage to skin cells when exposed to UV light-- the very rays people seek protection from when applying sunscreens.

While the jury is still out on whether nanomaterials can enter intact skin, studies show that broken skin is an ineffective barrier to entry of particles as large as 7,000 nm, and this suggests that the presence of acne, eczema or shaving wounds is likely to enable the uptake of much smaller nanoparticles, at 100 nm or less, into the body. In addition, many cosmetics and personal care products contain ingredients that act as “penetration enhancers,” raising concerns they may increase the likelihood of skin uptake of nanomaterials and possible entry into the blood stream. There are many instances where we know substances do cross the skin - phthalates, organic chemicals, pharmaceuticals, nicotine patches etc. We should not assume that nanoparticles do not cross the skin until we have robust research that demonstrates this.

There are far more questions about the health and environmental impacts of nanoparticles than science can currently answer.  Friends of the Earth is demanding a moratorium on further commercial release of personal care products that contain engineered nanomaterials, as well as a withdrawal of such products currently on the market until adequate, publicly available, independent peer-reviewed safety studies have been completed. Friends of the Earth is also calling on the federal government to create regulations that protect the general public, workers manufacturing these products, and the environment. This is the least we can do until we know more about these products and these new, untested materials.

Thank you.