Allergens by AccuStandard®

Of all the chemicals found in the environment today, only a small portion has been tested for toxicity. “Of the 10,500 chemical ingredients used in personal care products, only 11 percent have been safety assessed (including their allergen properties) and the assessments were not conducted by government officials, but by a panel funded by manufacturers”. Further, it is alarming to note that, “chemicals in combinations of two or more can create a synergy, making the toxicity significantly higher than any of the individual chemicals”. This is of concern because,“one-quarter of all women use at least 15 (personal-care) products a day”.“In addition to allergens, cosmetics and toiletries contain numerous other hazardous ingredients, including almost 100 carcinogens and 15endocrine (hormonal) disrupters, particularly phthalates”.

Did you know?
• 10% of the U.S. population is affected by allergens.
• The Institute of Medicine placed fragrance in the same category as secondhand smoke in triggering asthma in adults and school-age children.
• 5,000 is the approximate number of different fragrances in cosmetics.
• 1/3 is the percentage of cosmetic and toiletry products that contain chemicals (including fragrances) which have been linked to cancer.

The cosmetic known as “ceruse” was used by wealthy women in Europe from the 2nd century until well into the 19th century in order to make their faces look fashionably pale. Unfortunately, this was a fatal vanity because ceruse is essentially white lead.

Pale is not currently chic, but using sun block is. However, common ingredients in sun blocks, such as PABA and 4-MBC, are now a health concern. An answer to address this concern is to increase the awareness and understanding of the effects of common chemicals. This awareness has already happened as is evidenced by increasing governmental and industrial (self-regulation) actions.

The European Union has banned Phthalates from cosmetics. The European Parliament, through the SCCNFP, has limited the use of cosmetic allergens and has proposed the banning of 36 more. The $124 billion a year cosmetics industry will be required to reformulate their products for EU consumers by September 2004. Many companies —such as The Body Shop, Urban Decay, and OSEA Skin Care — have already begun to remove these chemicals from their products or pledged to do so. In the U.S., Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) has been asked by environmental organizations to consider legislation mandating labeling for cosmetics and toiletries that pose serious, irreversible health risks.Representative Jan Schakowsky, D-IL, has reintroduced legislation, “The Safe Notification and Informationfor Fragrances (SNIFF) Act,” to amend the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The Act requires that Allergens in fragrance products be labeled accordingly. More explicitly, the European Parliament has issued a Directive that all products containing 26 well-known Allergens should be labeled. In another effort,California Bill AB 2025 seeks to prohibit dangerous chemicals in cosmetics. All this will lead to increased testing to meet the new criteria.

Allergen standards offered by AccuStandard：
Standards include those found in everything from shampoos to skin creams. Since personal care products have proliferated, we look better and smell better. However, the average person is now exposed to significantly higher levels of chemicals than people were exposed to only a generation ago. The resulting synergistic effect, coupled with environmental exposure to chemicals, is the focus of an ever increasing number of studies.Some of these chemicals cause, or are suspected of causing, allergic reactions. Some chemicals are toxic.Phthalates are a cosmetic issue as well as a Food Safety
concern as an Indirect Food Additive. They tend to migrate from plastic containers and wrappings into food. Finally,pesticides are a cosmetic ingredient issue since they can be present with other ingredients such as lanolin. AccuStandard offers the widest selectionof Certified Reference Standards for pesticide and pesticide metabolite analysis (see www. AccuStandard.com for a full list).The Allergen Check Standards were introduced by AccuStandard to meet analytical requirements.

Three Reasons to buy cosmetic Standards from AccuStanda-rd instead of making them in your own lab：
1. Safety The less exposure to concentrated chemicals, the fewersafety issues a company will have.
2. Certification Full Certificates of Analysis come with all products. AccuStandard’s quality system is ISO 9001:2000 accredited. AccuStandard is the only major organic standards manufacturer to be approved by NIST (under the NVLAP Program, Lab Code 200389-0) as a Proficiency Test (PT) provider.
3. Savings Buying and manufacturing efficiencies along with storage and disposal issues make it more cost effective to get your standards from AccuStandard.AccuStandard is the largest manufacturer dedicated solely to the synthesis, manufacture and analysis of certified chemical reference standards in the world. Known for its synthesis of all 209 PCB congeners, over 130 PBDE congeners, and almost all of the more important POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutants), AccuStandard’s selection of over 30,000 standards is the widest available. All standards ship with Certificates of Analysis.

Many Standards are synthesized by AccuStandard and are not available elsewhere. If you do not see the chemicals or their metabolites that you need, let us know and we may be able to synthesize them. Additionally, if a certain custom mixture of allergens would make your analysis easier, we can provide you with a custom formulation that will save you time.
 

Allergens listed in the EU Directive

EU Directive 76/768/EEC, Annex VIII (a), the work of the Scientific Committee on Cosmetic Products and Non-Food Products (SCCNFP), identified 26 fragrance allergens. They include cut-off levels beyond which the products must be labeled. These levels are 0.01% for rinse-off products and 0.001% for leave-on products. These allergens are also of concern outside the EU. The Directive lists another 36 allergens that may be banned, 28 are currently available.

Each is 1 mL at 1000 μg/mL. For Solvent see Key
EU DIRECTIVE LIST OF 26 REGULATED CONTACT ALLERGENS

Parabens

Parabens are used as a preservative in a wide range of products including over 13,200 cosmetics, and even in some foods. Until recently, parabens were thought to have no serious health risks. Recent testing has indicated a link between breast tumors and the use of underarm deodorants1.

Phthalates +

Phthalates are the most commonly used plasticizers. "In cosmetics they are used to add texture and luster to the product."2 "A 2002 study at the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan linked phthalates (which are used to soften plastic) to early puberty in girls. Studies conducted at Harvard University in Cambridge in 2002 and 2003 linked the chemicals to decreased sperm counts in men. ... a 2002 study by the Atlanta based Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which found that phthalate levels in young women (who represent the bulk of cosmetic consumers) may be 20 times higher than average."3

Metals

Many metals, such as Mercury and Chromium, have long been known to cause health problems. The "mad hatters" of the 19th century suffered from mercury poisoning, as did the hat makers in Danbury, Connecticut, who called their disease the Danbury Shakes4. These metals have also found their way into everyday personal care products.

Chlorofluorocarbon Propellants +

Sun Block +

Research at the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Zurich in Switzerland tested six common UV screening chemicals used in sunscreens, lipsticks, and other cosmetics. Five of the six behaved like estrogen in lab tests. Hormone disrupters cause a variety of health problems5.

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