Are Cancer-Causing Chemicals in Your Baby’s Shampoo?
- Posted on November 1, 2011 at 6:49am by
Liz Klimas
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TRENTON, New Jersey (The Blaze/AP) — Chemicals that could be harmful to babies remain in Johnson & Johnson’s baby shampoo sold in the U.S. and some other countries, even though the company already makes versions without them, according to an international coalition of health and environmental groups.
The coalition is urging consumers to boycott Johnson & Johnson baby products until the company agrees to remove the chemicals from its baby products sold around the world, including in China and the U.K. Johnson & Johnson has said it has been phasing these chemicals out of its products and also notes that the levels at which these chemicals are present in their products is approved by regulators.
The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has unsuccessfully been urging the world’s largest health care company for 2 1/2 years to remove the trace amounts of potentially cancer-causing chemicals — dioxane and a substance called quaternium-15 that releases formaldehyde — from Johnson’s Baby Shampoo, one of its signature products.
Johnson & Johnson has said it is reducing or gradually phasing out the chemicals.
“Johnson & Johnson clearly can make safer baby shampoo in all the markets around the world, but it’s not doing it,” said Lisa Archer, director of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.
The campaign’s new report, “Baby’s Tub is Still Toxic,” is set to be released Tuesday, when the group was launching the boycott via its website, http://www.safecosmetics.org.
The updated report was based on an examination of label ingredients for Johnson & Johnson baby products in 13 countries.
On Monday, the campaign sent Johnson & Johnson a letter, signed by about 25 environmental, medical and other groups representing about 3.5 million people in the U.S. and other countries. It urges the company to publicly commit by Nov. 15 to removing the chemicals from all personal care products worldwide.
In response, Johnson & Johnson said in a statement that formaldehyde-releasing preservatives are safe and approved by regulators in the U.S. and other countries, but that it is gradually phasing them out of its baby products. It said it is also reformulating baby products to reduce the level of dioxane below detectable levels. But it did not say whether it would respond to or meet the campaign’s full demands.
The letter, addressed to CEO William Weldon, was signed by groups including the Breast Cancer Fund, Environmental Working Group, Friends of the Earth, American Nurses Association, Physicians for Social Responsibility and Green America.
According to the report, obtained by The Associated Press, one of the suspect chemicals, quaternium-15, is a preservative that kills bacteria by releasing formaldehyde. Formaldehyde, used as a disinfectant and embalming fluid, was declared a known human carcinogen this past June by the U.S. National Toxicology Program. Formaldehyde also is a skin, eye and respiratory irritant.
Quaternium-15 is still an ingredient on Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Shampoo sold in the U.S., Canada, China, Indonesia and Australia, but the campaign‘s research this summer found it’s not in the same product sold in at least eight other countries, from the U.K. and Denmark to Japan and South Africa.
The second chemical, 1,4-dioxane, is considered a likely carcinogen. It’s a byproduct of a process for making chemicals more soluble and gentler on the skin.
The campaign’s May 2009 report, called “No More Toxic Tub,” stated that studies by an independent laboratory it hired, Analytical Sciences LLC, found that 1,4-dioxane was contained in Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Shampoo, Oatmeal Baby Wash, Moisture Care Baby Wash and Aveeno Baby Soothing Relief Creamy Wash.
According to the report, the company has since launched a baby shampoo called Johnson’s Naturals, sold in the U.S., that does not include 1,4-dioxane. But original Johnson’s baby shampoo, which costs about half as much, has not been reformulated for the U.S. market, according to the campaign.
Analytical Sciences tested multiple J&J baby product samples from the U.S. for the first report, finding low levels of the chemicals. After that, according to Archer, consumer groups in South Africa, Sweden and Japan contacted her group to note that quaternium-15 was not being used in products in their countries.
Archer noted that some of the countries where the products did not contain the harsh chemicals had bans on them in personal care products, but others didn’t.
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smgvt2012
Posted on November 2, 2011 at 11:22amif its known to the state of california it somehow causes cancer!
Report Post »libertybell123
Posted on November 1, 2011 at 11:32pmPSA –
Report Post »The harmful chemicals in most cosmetics, lotions are parabens, the xxxxmethicones (dimethicone, etc.). Here is a helpful web site:
http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/
Buy only natural products with no chemicals in them- I am lucky to live near a local farmer who also makes home-made lotions with olive/almond oils. There is also an article in Country Living magazine featuring a woman who makes chemical-free shampoos for children, her business is growing and is run in a barn.
Also, the soybean lobbyists have pushed endocrine-disrupting soy into virtually all food products- cake mixes, salad dressings, you name it, including the toxic soy milk. Unfermented soy contains un-bound phytoestrogen, which mimics estrogen in the body and the body thinks it has estrogen and reacts to it (perfect for post-menopausal women, horrific for everyone else). Soy contributes to the growth of tumors/ovarian cysts that can kill women, but most cysts are caught withe early care.
blue suede
Posted on November 2, 2011 at 3:06amThe FDA doesn’t care about the health of Americans. It allows the cosmetic companies to go unregulated. That means the billion dollar a year industry can do and say anything they want to sell their unhealthy chemical cocktails to men and women.
Report Post »Laundry soap, body wash, shampoo, toothpaste, creams and lotions and food contain sodium laurel sulfate plus a hundred more, that contribute to endocrine disruption and cancer and allergies and all kinds of ailments that people are not aware of.
Europe, has one good thing going for it, they banned a few of these chemicals from their products. America is in it for the money and we are paying the price.
Stop and read what is in that bottle or tube before you buy it. Switch to natural, organic and healthy products. http://www.ewg.org/
CitizenVetUSA
Posted on November 1, 2011 at 10:44pmFormaldehyde is used in the glue for plywood paneling and takes some time for it to leach out. Walk into a new mobile home that has been in the hot sun. That‘s what we sent to the Katrina victims trailer ’s built in Elkhart County Indiana.
Report Post »c0mm0nsense
Posted on November 1, 2011 at 2:05pmYou know Glenn gets this stuff from Alex Jones.
Report Post »Libertyluvnmomma
Posted on November 1, 2011 at 3:44pmThe pharmaceutical companies put formaldehyde in your vaccines too.
…and some of you got freaked out about thimerosal.
Aborted fetal tissue is also nice in the petri dish for the manufacture of mass immunizations…or chicken and eggs….
Report Post »WAKEUPUSA2012
Posted on November 1, 2011 at 3:46pmWhats wrong with that? Maybe u like flouride in your water and cancer causing strains in ur vaccines.
Report Post »c0mm0nsense
Posted on November 1, 2011 at 7:14pmactually I have my own water treatment facility, all natural.
Report Post »HorseCrazy
Posted on November 1, 2011 at 1:39pmI use products that I like instead of what is organic or not. we are all coming to the same inevitable end which is death at a certain point. if we arent poisoned by this we are poisoned by that. I do not eat organic veg/fruit unless I grow them myself. chemicals used in pesticides are there for a reason, those with soap concerns always have the option of making their own. forcing companies to change is foolish when there are other options. no one is forcing anyone to use j&j baby products. you can always buy organic for 3x as much and wait for capitalism to take charge. when revenue is lost a company makes changes. I am tired of calls to ban everything someone decides this week they dont like. remember when hand sanitizer was considered a carcinogen and now it isnt? remember we were all being killed by our aluminum based deodarant and then we weren’t? there are countless examples of fear based pushes for bans just ask california farmers how they feel about not using effective pesticides in order to save a couple fish.
Report Post »Jaycen
Posted on November 1, 2011 at 10:47pmYou know, there are cancer causing chemicals in most of what you consume. Consuming those chemicals in minute amounts will likely never cause you a problem.
Washing your hair with trace amounts of those chemicals is even less likely to cause you a problem. This is anti-science, anti-corporation communist nonsense, like the fear spread over genetically engineered corn (that we’ve all been eating for over a decade) or triptophane in Turkey.
Here’s a secret, gang, remember when people died of “old age”? What they really died from was cancer or any other number of problems we can now diagnose with greater accuracy, and yet, SOMEHOW, lifespans are increasing?
Oh my goodness! How’s that possible with all the carcinogens we consume? Because consuming those carcinogens doesn’t generally cause cancer in young, healthy people.
Report Post »Drakkhanlord
Posted on November 1, 2011 at 12:11pmSearch whats in our water supply , search whats in the inoculations . search whats in our medications ,
Search info on your food supply . search on Chemtrails and Haarp , Search Ben Livingston; father of weapo nized weather , Search Operation Northwoods ,Search 9/11 -building 7, thermate ,Search WTC burn for 6 weeks after …,search 9/11 ex plosive evidence ,, Search Agenda 21 , SEARCH barry SOETORO/OBAMA SS# E-verified FRAUD…
Just search people , while you still can get the information…
Dam , Ignorance is Bliss…
Report Post »Blackop
Posted on November 1, 2011 at 1:00pmThis is what industry does when no one is watching.
Report Post »Drakkhanlord
Posted on November 1, 2011 at 12:10pmSearch whats in our water supply , search whats in the inoculations . search whats in our medications ,
Search info on your food supply . search on Chemtrails and Haarp , Search Ben Livingston; father of weaponized weather , Search Operation Northwoods ,Search 9/11 -building 7, thermate ,Search WTC burn for 6 weeks after …,search 9/11 ex plosive evidence ,, Search Agenda 21 , SEARCH barry SOETORO/OBAMA SS# E-verified FRAUD…
Just search people , while you still can get the information…
Dam , Ignorance is Bliss…
Report Post »say no to gmos
Posted on November 1, 2011 at 10:32amSadly these chemicals are not just in baby shampoo. They are in all shampoos, makeup,lotions, aftershaves, clothing soaps, dryer sheets, household cleaning products, you name it. Dr Bronners soap is a great alternative. There is no regulation on these things,
Report Post »Besides all of these our food source is contaminated and riddled with genetically modified cancer causing ingredients and pesticides. USDA organic foods are the only way to know these harmful GMOs are not in your food. There is so much corruption involved! Obama just appointed the former vice president of Monsanto as the chief adviser of the FDA. Is something wrong here?
just slap me
Posted on November 1, 2011 at 10:37amCheck out http://www.rawhairorganics.com as an alternative
Report Post »V-MAN MACE
Posted on November 1, 2011 at 10:10amMore than likely.
This is what happens when we let corporations superficially modify toxic waste and sell it to us in some product, under a name that you have no idea what it is.
Report Post »just slap me
Posted on November 1, 2011 at 10:40amExactly.
Check out: “ Fluoride” in toothpaste
Report Post »c0mm0nsense
Posted on November 1, 2011 at 2:07pmVman, How is the fight againt the nazis going? Did you get a camera yet? Keep up the good work.
Report Post »V-MAN MACE
Posted on November 1, 2011 at 3:20pmI’ve been protesting the Federal Reserve lately, I haven’t got a camera yet, but I’m gonna get a nice camcorder this christmas when I can afford it!
It isn’t even “fluoride”, its hexafluorosilicate!
Report Post »blue suede
Posted on November 2, 2011 at 3:20amTrue. These protesters don‘t know how it was really done in the 70’s. I didn’t agree with everything they protested back then, but sometimes they got the attention of the government and big polluting companies were found guilty and made to change. Not anymore. The FDA and all regulatory agencies seem to be working for the big industries that are poisoning us, by just denying it is happening, while European courts are banning some of the same chemicals.
Some comments say it’s just a little poison in products, but how many products do you use each day and drink and eat? It adds up. I know we can’t stop all the poisoning of America, but I think, those days when we protested something that directly affected us and we were listened to, are gone. Fend for yourself, make your own baby shampoo.
Report Post »yiska8
Posted on November 1, 2011 at 10:05amI think Johnson&Johnson also have methylparaben and propylparaben in their products. I’m a label reader and do not use products with any parabens. I’m really surprised tha J&J have waited so long to lessen the amount of chemicals from their baby products. No more tears?Yeah right, I remember red, teary eyes after getting shampooed as a little kid. More people have to do their research and read labels.
Report Post »libertybell123
Posted on November 1, 2011 at 11:33pmYes, parabens are bad and are in most shampoos/conditioners.
Report Post »blue suede
Posted on November 2, 2011 at 3:24amAs always, as long as they can get away with it, they will merrily roll along. But this administration has no intention of listening to the valid complaints from its citizens. We’re dealing with people who believe in reducing the population of the world to 500 million.
Report Post »ZengaPA65
Posted on November 1, 2011 at 10:01amWhat’s the new improved version, No More Chemo?
Report Post »Kisha
Posted on November 1, 2011 at 9:52amSeriously???? : (
Report Post »just slap me
Posted on November 1, 2011 at 9:45amI recommend Raw Hair Organics 100% natural / organic hair products.
They are made in America, and are hand formulated and packaged by a well-known hairstylist in Naples, FL. They are all natural and organic, but perform like industry standard-types. They are truely amazing. Really nothing else like them that I’ve personally found
Great story behind how and why she developed them, too.
Check them out at: http://www.rawhairorganics.com
Report Post »rabblechat
Posted on November 1, 2011 at 9:20amThats why I recommend Dr. Bronners soap; there is absolutely no reason to add all those chemicals to soap!
Report Post »