Teenage bodies burdened with chemicals

The debate over the safety of cosmetic ingredients was reignited in September when the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a Washington, D.C.–based nonprofit, published a report on the subject.

EWG found that teenage girls' bodies contained the same potentially hormone-altering chemicals found in many cosmetics and its report references earlier studies that link those chemicals to health risks, including cancer, in lab animals. Of particular concern is a chemical family known as phthalates, used in some nail polishes and fragrances.

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"We're concerned that these hormone-disrupting chemicals could start to play a role in how growth and development plays out in the teen body and therefore how it might be linked to health effects later in life," says Rebecca Sutton, PhD, author of the report and a senior scientist at EWG.

But don't liquidate your cosmetics shelf just yet. The authors of the EWG report, which looked at 20 girls ages 14 to 19, did not show a direct link between the girls' makeup habits and what was found in their bodies. The chemicals could have come from any number of other sources.

"The phthalates in the plastic water bottles these girls drink from, or the microwave containers they eat out of, may be far more likely to get into their system than cosmetic use, and as of now, no one has banned these things," says M. William Audeh, MD, an oncologist who works in cancer risk assessment at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

"I agree that the general environment in which we grow up and live is far too full of unnatural, possibly harmful chemicals," says Dr. Audeh. "But I think that to say that cosmetics are an important source, and then blame diseases on them, is going much too far."