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The Food and Drug Administration has proposed banning hair straightening products that contain or emit formaldehyde, more than a decade after the cosmetic industry’s own experts declared the products unsafe.
Frequent use of chemical hair relaxers has been linked to possible increased risk of developing uterine cancer, which is also called endometrial cancer. Women who use these products often face more than twice the risk of those who do not.
Other studies have linked hair straighteners and dyes to breast and ovarian cancer. Agency scientists deemed formaldehyde a human carcinogen seven years ago, and its lawyers began drafting a proposed ban.
Workers like embalmers who are exposed to high levels of formaldehyde have higher rates of myeloid leukemia and other rare cancers. The FDA warns that immediate reactions may include eye and throat irritation, coughing, wheezing, or chest pain. Chronic or long-term problems include frequent headaches, asthma, skin irritation, and allergic reactions.
Hair straightening products are primarily marketed to black women. While rates of uterine cancer have increased among all women in recent years, the increase has been most pronounced among women of color, including Asian and Hispanic women.
The agency’s proposed rule would ban formaldehyde and other formaldehyde-releasing chemicals in hair straightening and straightening products marketed in the United States. The planned date for the ban is April 2024.
Some treatments, including so-called keratin treatments, claim to be formaldehyde-free, but contain a substance called methylene glycol, which converts to formaldehyde gas after coming into contact with air. (Scientists consider methylene glycol to be simply formaldehyde in a solution.)
The FDA has always had the authority to ban a specific ingredient like formaldehyde and has removed about a dozen ingredients, including mercury compounds, from cosmetics.
But the industry was largely unregulated until last year, when Congress gave the FDA oversight authority. However, the action was not related to the new authority, the FDA said.
Expanded oversight does not mean that new products will typically undergo agency review before being marketed to the public. But makers of shampoo, nail polish, makeup and other items must now register their manufacturing sites with the FDA and disclose ingredients on packaging.
The FDA can also issue a mandatory recall of a cosmetic product if a serious health problem arises or a death occurs.
The controversy over formaldehyde in hair straighteners has persisted for years. The Environmental Working Group, an advocacy organization, asked the agency in 2011 and again in 2021 to ban hair products with formaldehyde.
FDA lawyers began drafting rules for a proposed ban in 2016, but the process was abruptly halted a few months later and no explanation was given.
“The FDA has known for decades that these products are dangerous,” said Melanie Benesh, vice president of government affairs for the Environmental Working Group. “There is no reason why they should not have acted sooner.”
“This is the first public indication we’ve seen that they are planning to ban it in hair straightening products,” Benesh added. The products pose a real risk of harm, he said, both to stylists regularly exposed to formaldehyde vapor while providing the treatment, and to clients who receive it.
He The agency currently encourages consumers to read labels. of hair products before purchasing them and avoid those that contain formaldehyde, formalin or methylene glycol. The agency urges consumers to ask hairdressers what products they use and to report adverse reactions.