Today I attended a school for a very prestigious cosmetics product brand here in Toronto. The word du jour was “parabens” which are a class of chemicals widely used as preservatives in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries for their bactericidal and fungicidal properties.
Health Canada, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR) have all deemed that parabens are safe at current exposure levels. The CIR examined parabens in 1984 and again in 2005, and both times accomplished that parabens at the low levels found in personal care products are not a concern.
Some brands have gone on the record about their long-term plans to find paraben replacements to make their products paraben-free. The French brand I am referring to has decided to not announce the removal of such preservatives from its products, and rather have the sales person inform the end user about each product on a case by case basis! I don’t know of the legal consequence of this strategy, but from a marketing point of view, I don’t understand why a corporation would not publicly announce a positive point about its products! It may well be that they are not changing their formulas at all!
My opinion: in a world where we are exposed to high levels of chemicals in our air, soil, and water every day, and tons of oil is leaking in the Gulf of Mexico every minute, we should not concern ourselves with a preservative that has been cleared by health authorities. My point is that spending more on products that claim to be safe and paraben free is too little too late . The French may have a point!
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