Halloween is only a couple of weeks away and while you do your shopping for costumes and candy don’t forget to check if that Halloween make-up has toxic chemicals that can haunt you and your child.
A new report, Pretty Scary 2, published today by the Breast Cancer Fund and co-released by Clean Water Action found potentially harmful chemicals could be in the products marketed to your kids. Protecting your children’s health and well-being may require careful inspection of the face paints sold in your local stores and at large retailers because they can be contaminated by heavy metals including lead and cadmium. Lead causes altered brain development and learning difficulties while cadmium disrupts the body’s hormones. Unfortunately, this issue isn’t limited to Halloween, the report also unmasks frightening ingredients found in lip balm, nail and makeup kits, and other cosmetics marketed to kids ages 4-14.
Clean Water Action Massachusetts participated in this project by providing products from the Natick, MA branch of the Justice store. Parents shouldn’t have to worry that a store advertised to kids like Justice will contain toxic chemicals that can have serious effects on their long-term health.
Erica Streit-Kaplan, a mother of 2 daughters in Newton, agrees: "These results are infuriating. We families just want to enjoy Halloween and have fun dressing up and trick-or-treating. Why should we have to worry that dangerous chemicals or heavy metals are lurking in face paint -- something that nearly all children wear at some point? For years, kids wore masks on Halloween; then we parents were discouraged from buying them since they limited visibility. Now makeup turns out to be another safety issue? I'm grateful for this information, but really wish that we busy parents could trust that what we buy to celebrate Halloween won't cause them harm."
Children are especially vulnerable to the effects of chemicals, and preventing early-life exposures to harmful chemicals can help prevent health problems throughout their lives. Despite the cosmetics industry’s claim to the contrary, small exposures can add up to harm and a growing body of scientific evidence shows that even tiny doses of some chemicals, such as endocrine disrupting chemicals, can be harmful. And it’s not just the size of the exposure that matters, but also the timing of the exposure and size of the person exposed to the chemical. Exposures during particular developmental stages, such as those that occur during puberty, may increase an individual’s later-life risk of disease.
This report will help parents to make sure that a tummy-ache from too much candy is the only thing that will get their kids sick this Halloween, but it shouldn’t be their job. Unfortunately federal laws that regulate cosmetics are sorely lacking the FDA is not empowered to regulate these products. We think it’s time for a revision that will protect children and all of our health.
Read the full report here: Pretty Scary 2: Unmasking Toxic Chemicals in Kids’ Make-up
