NTP Nominates Five Cosmetic Ingredients For Carcinogens Report
This article was originally published in The Rose Sheet
Executive Summary
The National Toxicology Program nominates five substances with cosmetic uses among 20 substances it is considering adding to future editions of its Report on Carcinogens. Cocamide DEA and kava kava extract, among others, make the tentative list.
The National Toxicology Program says it will consider adding five substances that have uses as cosmetic ingredients to future editions of its Report on Carcinogens.
In a Sept. 20 Federal Register notice
, the NTP announced it was nominating 20 substances for possible review and addition to its lists of known and likely human carcinogens, joining 10 substances nominated in January 2012.
The RoC is mandated by Congress and prepared for the Department of Health and Human Services by NTP, which is part of the National Institutes of Health. According to NTP, the RoC is a “science-based, public health report that identifies agents, substances, mixtures or exposures in our environment that pose a cancer hazard for people in the United States.”
The report draws attention from advocacy groups who often use the list as a reference in their campaigns to challenge the safety of ingredients and trigger regulation.
While the RoC is slated for publication every two years, it is often delayed. The latest iteration was released in June 2011, but the previous version of the report came out in 2005 (Also see "NTP Determines Formaldehyde “Known Human Carcinogen” In New Report" - HBW Insight, 20 Jun, 2011.).
NTP requests information from the public on the substance nominees by Oct. 18 as it considers their review.
The information requested includes data on current production, use patterns and human exposure; information about published, ongoing or planned studies related to evaluating carcinogenicity; scientific issues important for assessing carcinogenicity of the substance; and names of scientists with expertise or knowledge about the substance.
Coconut diethanolamide, also known as cocamide DEA, is one of the substances being considered by the NTP. The ingredient was recently identified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as a cancer-causing agent.
The IARC decision prompted California to add cocamide DEA to its Proposition 65 regulation, which requires manufacturers and retailers properly notify consumers that their products contain the substances with suspected carcinogenic or reproductive toxicity risks.
A number of personal-care firms were caught off guard when the state’s grace period for notification expired in June, which resulted in a lawsuit by NGO the Center for Environmental Health (Also see "NGO’s Prop 65 Lawsuit Targets Undisclosed Cocamide DEA" - HBW Insight, 16 Sep, 2013.).
Other cosmetics-related substance nominees for NTP’s consideration for the RoC include alkenylbenzenes, which can be used as a fragrance ingredient; aloe vera whole leaf extract, used in a variety of cosmetic and personal-care products; kava kava extract, a skin-conditioning agent; and polyacrylates, which have a wide range of uses in cosmetic and personal-care products.