Northwestern University’s study reports increasing side-effects of cosmetics

A new study by researchers from Northwestern University in the US has reported enhanced side-effects due to cosmetics and personal care products over the past year in the country.

The study highlighted poor reporting of the potentially harmful effects to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and urged for better data and policy changes.

Aimed at raising awareness among customers and strengthening cosmetic regulation, the study reports that consumer complaints of overall adverse events more than doubled from 706 in 2015 to 1,591 last year.

According to the report, cosmetics sector is governed by comparatively less regulations as the products do not require pre-FDA approval and has limited data sources to track the safety of the products.

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine dermatology resident physician Dr Steve Xu said: "The FDA has much less authority to recall cosmetics from the market in stark contrast to drugs or medical devices.

“It’s harder for the FDA to get harmful cosmetics off the shelves.”

Dr Xu also noted that more than 5,000 events were reported to the regulatory authority from 2004 to 2016 and believes that many events are yet to be reported.

The report indicated that the majority of the complaints were on haircare and skincare products or tattoos, while self-reports of adverse health outcomes such as serious injury, death and disability were highest in the case of toiletries, baby, haircare, hair colouring and unclassifiable products.

The study further highlighted potential harmful outcomes due to cosmeceuticals that are marketed as cosmetic products with an active ingredient similar to drug components.