Get the knowledge: what are the impacts of product ingredients?
Bella is a typical teenager. She’s sporty and wants to be a successful athlete when she’s older. Like many 14-year olds, she takes great care about her appearance. She regularly uses makeup and hair care products. The ingredients in these products are all approved for use in cosmetics. But, can Bella be confident that they really are safe and there will be no long term impacts on her body?
Recent studies have shown consumers are likely to be exposed to many different substances when they use everyday products. These chemicals also find their way into household dust and recycled materials, further magnifying potential hazards. Not all chemicals are hazardous, but concerns over how certain chemicals in products can affect health, and the environment, have seen regulators impose restrictions and bans in a number of countries. But the few examples of measures far outweigh the knowledge on risks of chemicals in consumer products.
People have used chemicals to make their lives easier for thousands of years. From the Bronze Age, when people learned to extract metals from ores, to making soap, to more recent discoveries like the use of gypsum as a fertiliser in the 18th century.
In the last couple of decades, scientists have invented increasingly sophisticated substances, like pharmaceutical and pesticide active ingredients, and nanomaterials and semiconductors that have revolutionised health, food production, and so much of the electronics and telecommunications industries.
While successful chemical companies make products that society benefits from, it is important that people are also aware of the potential risks. Taking the example of pharmaceuticals, people can read about potential side effects on information sheets sold with medication. However, for most chemicals in products it is very difficult for consumers to know what chemicals are present, and if they are dangerous. The expectation is that products on supermarket shelves are safe. But countless examples from the past indicate that they are not.
Why are toxic chemicals in consumer products?
In the last 60 years, the number and volume of chemicals used to make everyday items has grown exponentially, as businesses made the most of the move to low cost, large scale products that fed the age of consumerism. It is estimated 98% of all manufactured products either contain chemicals, or rely on chemicals for their processing.
Figures for the number of chemicals in commerce that are used in products or in manufacturing vary. There are currently 80,000 on the national inventory of substances in the US. In the EU over 120,000 were listed by manufacturers prior to the introduction of new legislation (known as REACH); hazard and use information has now been gathered and submitted to the EU authorities for around 25,000 chemicals made or imported in quantities of over one tonne/year.
As well as being found in mixtures used in cosmetics and personal care items, chemicals are used in cleaning products, paints, glues and inks. They are used in complex components used in electronics, electricals, cars, trains and planes. They also feed into the myriad of plastics products that seem to have found their way into every corner of modern life. Chemicals are also at the heart of pharmaceuticals, pesticides and products called biocides that are used to tackle biological threats from rats to coronavirus.
While chemicals have contributed to modern life, since the 1970s there have been growing concerns about risks to human health and the environment posed by certain substances. Chemicals that are hazardous need to be managed carefully throughout the product life cycle - that is from its starting point (for example, if it’s: derived from fossil fuels, as many chemicals are; comes from agricultural sources; mined; or extracted from the air), through the sometimes many layers in the supply chain, through use, possibly reuse and recycling, finally to waste disposal. Safer options need to be found If the risks are high at any point in the cycle.
But many consumers, like Bella, do not realise that for many years chemicals were sold for use in a wide range of products without legislation ensuring safety being in place. Regulators have been trying to deal with this ‘legacy’ issue over the past 20 years. But still consumers know very little about the chemicals in the products they buy, and the risks some present to their health and the environment.
And they know even less about the impacts of exposure to these chemicals on workers making the products they buy, or how they impact the environment if they pollute from manufacturing or disposal sites, or the implications of having hazardous ingredients in products that are recycled.
In Europe, so far, just over 200 chemicals or groups of similar chemicals have been identified as substances of very high concern, just over 50 have been banned (unless special permission for use is agreed) and there are 70 restrictions covering the use of various substances, where limits are set on how much of a chemical can be used so the exposure, in theory, is maintained at a safe level (See box of examples to come).
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has struggled to introduce measures to tackle risks associated with legacy chemicals, mainly because of industry lobbying. To date, the agency has taken action against a dozen substances, some of which are used in consumer products, including:
- Banning a flame retardant (known as decaBDE) used in plastic enclosures for computers, televisions, and other electricals, textiles and upholstered articles, as well as wire and cables for communication and electronic equipment, and other applications
- Banning a plastics additive and flame retardant (PIP (3:1)), used in hydraulic fluids, lubricating oils, lubricants and greases, as well as adhesives, sealant, and plastic articles
- Restricting methylene chloride, used by consumers to remove paint and coating removal for consumer use.
Other countries tackling the legacy chemicals issue include Australia, Canada, China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Regulators in some countries have also introduced targeted laws to manage chemical risks in specific sectors, such as cosmetics, food, electronics, toys, and medical devices. These regulations tend to list ingredients that are either:
- Permitted for use (for example lists of approved cosmetic ingredients, or materials that can be used to package food or authorised pesticides); or
- Banned or limited (for example, heavy metals and other hazardous chemicals in electronics or toys).
There can be additional requirements for certain information to be reported, or labelling to be used - for example, use of substances called nanomaterials (very small) have to be labelled on cosmetics and food contact materials in Europe.
As well as concerns arising from the hazardous properties of chemicals in products, the chemical industry is also heavily reliant on fossil fuels, which both power many chemical manufacturing processes and are traditionally used as a raw material for many of large volume products. Use of other resources, such as rare earth metals and conflict minerals are also a concern.
Why are some chemicals risky?
Understanding more about hazard, exposure and risk leads to greater understanding about what you decide to buy. Every chemical has its own set of properties specific to its structure. For example, it will become solid or boil at specific temperatures.
A chemical’s properties are important, as they usually provide the function to the products they are in. For example, they might have fragrance, or colour. As well as useful properties, some chemicals have hazardous properties - for example, they might be flammable, corrosive, toxic or cause diseases such as cancer (See table for list of hazard properties.)
The UN system to classify chemical hazards, has ten health hazard categories and two environmental hazard categories. The EU is currently looking to add new categories/criteria?).
A chemical’s hazard isn’t a risk until exposure happens. This can be either through eating, breathing or touching (including getting something in your eye). For example, Bella would have to come into contact with a skin sensitizing chemical, and usually at a certain dose, for it to trigger an allergic reaction.
All current regulations controlling which substances can be used in products, are based on risk assessments, which take each chemical’s hazard properties and exposure into account.
Check it out
For more information on these issues:
- UN Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals
- US Environmental Protection Agency
- Chemical classification, labelling and packaging
- ChemTrust investigates man-made chemicals from causing long term damage to wildlife and humans
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