Potentially carcinogenic or polluting substances in moisturizers, heavy metals in toothpastes ... The magazine 60 million consumers pinpointed several cosmetic products, including well-known brands such as Dior, L'Oréal or Carrefour, in a study testing 86 products and released Thursday.
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Toothpastes, shower creams and gels, nail polish, moisturizers, foundations, shaving foams ... In each of these categories, the magazine published by the National Consumer Institute rates the products on a scale of A “ Without reservation of use ” to E (“ use strongly advised against, product containing too many problematic substances ”) depending on the ingredients displayed on the packaging and their impact on health (70% of the rating) and the environment (30%).
" Don't panic people "
" We must not panic people ", told AFP the head of the Health - Cosmetics section of the magazine, Adelaide Robert, " in the event of a proven and immediate risk to health, we would not have these products on the market. ". It is rather a question of indicating products whose regular use and over a long period of time can have harmful consequences on the organism.
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Each category of cosmetic products has its problematic ingredients: for moisturizers, these are for example polymers, the manufacture of which is very polluting, or so-called azo dyes, some of which " are potentially carcinogenic in addition to being sensitizing and irritants, ”the magazine writes. Some Carrefour, Dop and Weleda brand shower products contain coumarin, " suspected of being carcinogenic-mutagenic-reprotoxic ", or Lilial (butylphenyl methylpropional), present in Dove cream, " toxic for reproduction " .
Heavy metals
Some toothpastes, " Oral B, Sanogyl, Sensodyne, Signal, Vademecum or Zendium ", show traces of heavy metals, such as zinc and tin, " toxic ", explains the magazine. Or titanium dioxide, which “ may contain nanoparticles and is suspected of being carcinogenic ”.
Overall, the magazine calls on consumers to identify in the lists of ingredients those to avoid as much as possible, such as iodopropynyl butylcarbamate, allergenic, or EDTA, irritant and " especially very polluting for the environment ".
“ The idea of these evaluations is to push manufacturers to do better, because we can clearly see that in each family of products, there are some that are doing well ” by offering products that have been removed from these problematic ingredients, concludes Adélaïde Robert.
