Following controversy surrounding formaldehyde levels in certain Brazilian Blowout professional hair smoothing products, the Cosmetic Ingredient Review Expert Panel will consider reopening review of formaldehyde at its Dec. 13-14 meeting.

The CIR panel last reviewed formaldehyde in 2003, determining it safe for use in beauty products if the measurement of free formaldehyde does not exceed 0.2%, but the review considered its use primarily as a preservative and could not conclude that it "is safe in products intended to be aerosolized."

The panel will also decide whether to review safety of methylene glycol, since formaldehyde in water, or formalin, converts to methylene glycol, CIR says.

If reopened, the expert panel could take into consideration new epidemiology studies “addressing a possible link between formaldehyde and leukemia,” according to the meeting agenda.

In November, the Personal Care Products Council urged CIR to take another look at the safety of formaldehyde (“Council Calls For Formaldehyde Review,” “The Rose Sheet” Nov. 8, 2010).

Oregon’s Occupational Safety and Health division and Canadian regulatory body Health Canada received consumer complaints related to use of Brazilian Blowout and investigated, initially finding high formaldehyde levels in products purporting to be free of it (“Formaldehyde Found In Brazilian Blowout Products,” “The Rose Sheet” Oct. 11, 2010).

Brazilian Blowout, distributed by Cavideu USA, maintains that its products are safe, touting in a Nov. 30 press release that Oregon OSHA found formaldehyde exposure levels below permissible levels in an air monitoring study of seven salons.

An Oct. 29 release from Oregon OSHA encourages salons using the products to exercise caution.

“Although it’s not clear whether the regulatory level of airborne exposure would be exceeded based on our results, it is clear that the levels are high enough to cause concern,” administrator Michael Wood says.

The CIR Expert Panel is also slated to issue final safety assessments on alkyl PEG ethers, cocamidopropyl betaine group, dicarboxylic acids group, dimethiconal group, isoparaffins group, trimonium group and triclosan at the meeting.

The panel will additionally consider reopening a safety assessment of human umbilical extract ( Also see "CIR May Reopen File On Human Umbilical Extract With Products In Pipeline" - HBW Insight, 6 December, 2010.).

By Lauren Nardella

Formaldehyde Safety Could Get Another Look From CIR Panel

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