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Toxins Found in Children's Shampoos
03.29.09The Sun-Herald
March 29, 2009
By KELLY BURKE
Consumer Affairs Reporter
A report by a US health advocacy group has named John's Baby Shampoo as one of 32 baby products found to contant small amounts of carcinogenic and allergy-producing chemicals.
The study, conducted by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, labratory tested 48 children's products that traded on claims of being pure, natural or gentle.
More than 80 per cent tested positive for the chemical compund formaldehyde and almost 70 per cent for 1,4-dioxane, a contaminant linked to cancer and birth defects in animals under repeated exposure.
None of the products tested listed the contaminants on the ingredient labels because they were toxic byproducts of the manufacturing process. Johnson's Baby Shampoo was found to contain 210 parts per million (.021 percent) formaldehyde and 1.1 ppm 1,4-dioxane.
While the trace levels in all products tested were similarly low, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics said such dangerous byproducts had no place in infants' shampoos and soaps that were used daily, and parents were not in the position to make informed decisions because labelling of the byproducts was not required.
The report has prompted accusations of scaremongering from the US Personal Care Products Counsil and ACCORD Austral-asia, the group respresenting the cosmetics industry here.
An ACCORD spokesman said the research was the work of a politically motivated anti-cosmetic campaign and the allegations were baseless.
"There is no formaldehyde in any of these products whatsoever, these claims are patently false," he said. "This is mischief-making which just creates concerns for parents when there is absolutely no need for concern."
In a written statement, Johnson & Johnson did not dispute that trace levels of the chemicals could be present as a result of production methods but it said these levels were so small as to cause no health concerns from medical experts, toxicologists and clinical scientists.
"All our products meet or exceed the regulatory requirements in every country where they are sold," the company said.
The Department of Health and Ageing said it was aware of the concerns raised by the report, but the low levels of formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane were well under the safe permissible levels.