2013/09/12
Is There Danger
Lurking in Lipstick?
【By DEBORAH BLUM／王麗娟譯】
A soft pink, a
glowing red, even a cyanotic purple — millions of women and girls apply
lipstick every day. And not just once: some style-conscious users touch up
their color more than 20 times a day, according to a recent study. But are they
also exposing themselves to toxic metals?
Most lipsticks
contain at least a trace of lead, researchers have shown. But a new study finds
that a wide range of brands contain other metals, from cadmium to aluminum. Now
experts are raising questions about what happens if these metals are absorbed
on a daily basis.
“It matters
because this is a chronic long-term issue, not a short-term exposure,” said
Katharine Hammond, a professor of environmental health sciences at the
University of California at Berkeley and the lead author of the new analysis.
“We’re not saying that anyone needs to panic. We’re saying let’s not be
complacent, that these are metals known to affect health.”
The issue first
came to public attention in 2007 with a report on lead contamination in
lipsticks by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. The United States Food and Drug
Administration published a follow-up in 2011, finding traces of lead in 400
lipsticks.
Both the F.D.A.
and the cosmetics industry insist that the average lead level found, just above
1 part per million, poses no real or unusual health risk. “Metals are
ubiquitous,” said Linda Loretz, chief toxicologist for the Personal Care
Products Council, an industry association. “And this is a very small amount,
too small to be a safety issue.”
But lead tends to
accumulate in the body, noted Dr. Sean Palfrey, medical director of the lead
poisoning prevention program at Boston University Medical Center. He also noted
that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States “
acknowledged last year that no level of lead is really safe.”
Beyond lead, Dr.
Hammond’s study, published in May in the journal Environmental Health
Perspectives, found traces of cadmium, cobalt, aluminum, titanium, manganese,
chromium, copper and nickel in 24 lip glosses and eight lipstick brands. The
researchers picked products favored by teenagers at a community health center
in Oakland, California, who reported reapplying lipsticks as often as 24 times
a day.
Aluminum, chromium
and manganese registered the highest concentrations over al l.
Aluminum is added
to lipsticks as a stabilizer, said Ms. Loretz: “It keeps colors from bleeding.”
Titanium oxide is used as a whitening agent, softening reds into pinks. Both
uses are approved by the F.D.A. But all of the other metals noted by Dr.
Hammond are probably unwanted contaminants, Ms. Loretz said.
For example,
manufacturers often use glittery, microscopic flakes of mica, a naturally
occurring mineral formation, to add shine to lip gloss. Mica routinely contains
such metals as lead, manganese, chromium and aluminum. And there is some
indication that more intense lipstick colors may carry a bigger metallic load
because of contamination in pigments.
Some metals are
undoubtedly absorbed through mucosal tissues , Dr. Palfrey said.
Dr. Hammond
recommends that consumers take a commonsense approach : For starters, don’t let
young children play with lipstick.
She said, “Treat
it like something dangerous, because if they eat it we are taking about a
comparatively large level of metals going into a small body.”
中譯
柔和的粉紅色、鮮豔紅，甚至青紫色，數以百萬計的婦女天天抹塗口紅。而且一天不止一次：根據最新研究，追求時尚的使用者，每天補唇不下20次。這些人是否讓自己暴露於有毒金屬中？
研究人員先前已經指出，多數口紅至少含有微量的鉛，而新的研究發現，許多品牌還包含鎘、鋁等其他金屬物質。現在，專家提出的問題是，人體每天吸收這些金屬會如何。
新分析研究報告的主要作者，柏克萊加州大學環境健康學教授凱瑟琳‧哈蒙德說：「這很重要，因為它是經常性長期使用，不是短期暴露。我們不是說人們應該恐慌。我們是說不該掉以輕心，這些都是已知會影響健康的金屬。」
這項問題2007年首次受到大眾注目，安全化妝品運動組織當時發表一篇有關口紅鉛汙染的報告。美國食品藥物管理局2011年發表後續報告，指出在400支口紅發現微量的鉛。食藥局和化妝品業者堅稱，他們發現的平均鉛量，僅略高於百萬分之一（1ppm），不會構成真正或不尋常的健康危險。業界組織「個人護理產品委員會」的首席毒物學家琳達‧羅雷茲說：「金屬無處不在，它的數量非常少，少到不足以構成安全問題。」
可是波士頓大學醫學中心鉛中毒預防計畫的醫學主任巴爾佛里博士指出，鉛會在人體內累積。他還說，美國疾病管制中心「去年承認，沒有任何鉛含量是真正安全的」。
哈蒙德博士發表於五月份環境健康展望期刊的研究報告還發現，除了鉛，有24種唇蜜和8種唇膏品牌還含有微量的鎘、鈷、鋁、鈦、錳、鉻、銅和鎳。研究人員是以加州奧克蘭社區健康中心的青少女喜愛的產品作研究，她們說，每天最多使用唇膏24次。
整體而言，鋁、鉻和錳的含量最高。
口紅添加鋁作為穩定劑，羅雷茲說：「它可防止顏色滲色。」口紅使用氧化鈦作白化劑，將紅色軟化成粉紅色。兩者都獲食藥局批准使用。但是羅雷茲說，哈蒙德發現的其他金屬，可能是非必要的汙染物。
例如，製造商經常使用天然礦物的形成物雲母閃閃發光的極微細薄片，提高唇蜜的光澤。雲母通常含有鉛、錳、鉻和鋁等金屬。跡象顯示，因為顏料的汙染，口紅色彩越深，金屬含量就越高。
有些金屬無疑會透過黏膜組織吸收，巴爾佛里說。
哈蒙德建議消費者採取一項常識性做法：首先，不要讓小孩玩口紅。
她說：「把它當做危險物，萬一他們吃進肚裡，這可是相對高濃度的金屬進入一個小小的身體。」
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