Report Says Children’s Products Contain Dangerous Chemicals

Greg Webb

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A March publication from the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics reported finding formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane, a trace contaminant of chemicals used in cosmetic products, in 55 children’s personal-care products. The Environmental Protection Agency lists these chemicals as probable human carcinogens. Seventeen of the products contained both chemicals, including Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Shampoo.

The same month, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand announced the “Safe Baby Products Act,” which asks the FDA to investigate chemicals used in children’s toiletries. She expressed concerns as a mother because many of the products listed in the report were products that she kept in her bathroom.

The editor of Stats.org, Trevor Butterworth, conveyed reservations about the implications of the report. Butterworth said that people are exposed to similarly low levels of these chemicals every day in food, air, and shower water, and that studies linking them to cancer are based on ingesting or inhaling large quantities of the chemicals in industrial or lab settings.

A statement from Johnson & Johnson said that all of their products meet or exceed requirements in every country in which they are sold.