Is There Really Lead in Your Lipstick?
Beware, I have been very busy this week and the neighbors just got a big dog that won’t stop barking. I am a bit grouchier than normal!
I don’t know for sure what to believe about the lipstick. I don’t think I have ever kissed a woman who was wearing lipstick, so I suppose I am safe from this. One of my daughters does occasionally wear lipstick though. Hopefully by the time she is ready to have children, she will be past that phase! I have heard many times that women don’t wear makeup for men, they wear it for themselves. In my case, at least, that is certainly true.
There have been many recent articles indicating that lipstick does indeed contain some level of lead. Whether the levels are high enough to be dangerous is being debated. The urban legend website has a page on a specific warning that has been going around the internet for some time. Even though Snopes labels lead in lipstick an urban myth, their page on it really only makes an argument that the level of lead is not dangerous.
The bigger concern is for cosmetics in general. The problem is the supposed regulation that FDA does on cosmetics, cleaning products, and many other items, allows companies to keep ingredients they consider "trade secrets" a real secret from consumers. I have referred to this several times before, but it still gets me angry every time I come across it anew. Stacy Malkin, from The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, says that there are over 10,000 different chemicals used in cosmetics and maybe 10 -15% of them have ever been tested for safety in humans. Add that to the fact that the 15% that might be tested are mostly tested on animals and I would think anyone who uses cosmetics would really try to purchase ones that are pledged to be safe and ethical. Here is a page that lists cosmetic companies that have taken that pledge.
I really believe that everything I eat or put on my body should at least be labeled with all of the ingredients so that I can make an informed choice when I buy. One common example is this… When you see a product that lists "fragrance" as an ingredient, beware. Fragrance is usually a catch all for "we really don’t want to tell you what is in here and besides, if we did we would have to kill you because it is a big, bad, trade secret"!
Of course, you have to be careful because if you buy only the healthy, ethically produced, food, cleaning products, personal hygiene products, cosmetics, clothes, and so on, you might not have any money left to pay the rent. But that is a rant for another day!
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