OCA Follow-up Cosmetic Tests Reveal Lower 1,4-Dioxane

In 2007 and 2008 the US Organic Consumers Association (OCA) in conjunction with Dr Bronners and health consumer advocate David Steinman, released a study which showed that a number of products labelled as ‘organic’ and even some certified as ‘organic,’ (apart from those certified by the USDA which has stringent oragnic standards), contained the petrochemical carcinogen 1,4-dioxane.

As a result in May 2008 the OCA and Dr Bronner’s filed Cease and Desist Letters to many of the brands making fraudulent claims when they were in fact using conventional and/or petrochemical ingredients in their products. This led to The Attorney General of California filing a lawsuit against various brands, such as Avalon Natural and Beaumont Products for failing to give warning of the presence of 1,4-dioxane in their products.

Under Proposition 65 in the State of California products should not expose consumers to chemicals known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity, without providing clear and reasonable warning.

On March 6th 2009 a follow up study was released by the OCA, again evaluating levels of the petrochemical carcinogen 1,4-dioxane in household cleaning and personal care products sold by leading conventional brands and ‘organic’ and ‘natural’ brands. The results indicate a significant improvement for 23 products from 16 major brands that had formerly been found to contain potentially hazardous levels of the contaminant.  Brands showing significant improvements included: Earth Friendly Products, Ecco Bella, Giovanni, Jason, Johnson & Johnson, Kiss My Face, Life Tree, Method, Nature’s Gate, Planet Ultra and Seventh Generation (who also donated $10,000 to help fund the follow-up study). 

Three of the brands named in the lawsuit filed by the California Attorney General have reformulated their products and either tested clean or nearly clean for 1,4-dioxane levels. These are: Alba (Avalon), Citrus Magic and Nutribiotic. 

The contaminant 1,4-dioxane is not an ingredient deliberately included in cosmetics but a byproduct of the ethoxylation process, which helps to make harsh ingredients milder. According to the U.S. FDA, these ingredients are identifiable by the prefix or descriptors, ‘PEG,’ ‘polyethylene,’ polyethylene glycol,’ ‘polyoxyethylene,’ ‘-eth’ or ‘-oxynol.’ 

As well as being a known human carcinogen 1,4-dioxane is also a suspected kidney toxicant, neurotoxicant and respiratory toxicant, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 

The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) has been running a “Coming Clean Campaign” for five years. The campaign aims to get the organic personal care industry to clean up its act by being more transparent instead of fraudulently labelling synthetic formulations as ‘organic’ or ‘natural.’ The OCA believe that organic bodycare standards should reflect organic food standards. Over 400 businesses have signed up to the campaign and I am certainly in favour of it! 

Click here more information about the OCA and the results of the study.