When’s the last time you checked what’s in your shampoo? The ingredients could be giving you allergies (or worsening existing ones), exposing you to toxic chemicals, or even contributing to more serious health problems down the road.

This has unfortunately been the experience of some consumers of personal care products (PCPs) such as shampoos, conditioners, and other hair care products.

While you may think that PCPs undergo the same quality checks and safety approval processes as food or pharmaceutical products, the truth is that they undergo almost no scrutiny at all.

PCP manufacturers are not required to perform safety tests, report safety data or adverse events to the FDA, or recall potentially harmful products—even after numerous safety complaints.

In fact, it took 21,000 complaints and 1,386 adverse health events including hair loss, pruritus (an unpleasant itching sensation), and rash being reported to the FDA by consumers before the WEN hair care line creators were ordered to pay those impacted by their products $26 million.

In 2014, Brazilian Blowout was ordered to pay $4.5 million to resolve more than 7,000 claims after the FDA found the company failed to warn consumers that their product emitted toxic formaldehyde.

Situations like these could have been avoided through basic regulation of the ingredients in personal care products.

A team of researchers from the Department of Dermatology at Mass General recently published a Legislative Update regarding the lack of PCP regulation in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, urging lawmakers to give the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) more regulatory authority to oversee what goes into these products.

The researchers note that the FDA’s ability to regulate products is hamstrung by outdated legislation from the 1930s and 1960s. The legislation allows manufacturers to use any ingredients in PCPs, as long as “this does not result in misbranded or adulterated products.”

FDA.gov defines an adulterated product as “any filthy, putrid or decomposed substance,” which gives manufacturers a lot of leeway when it comes to what goes into their products. There are no regulations regarding potential allergens or harmful chemicals.

The researchers stress that the time has come for a change, noting a worrisome increase in PCP-related skin disorders over the last 20 years and a higher frequency of PCP-related allergen positive patch tests.

They also point out that many “dermatologist-recommended” shampoos, including prescription-strength and over-the-counter anti-dandruff shampoos and tar shampoos, contain formaldehyde releasers and other known allergens—which could be exacerbating the very problems the shampoos are supposed to treat.

To combat this, the Safe Cosmetics and Personal Care Product Act of 2019 was introduced by Rep. Janice Schakowsky of Illinois. This act would expand FDA’s authority to regulate cosmetics with respect to safety standards, product recalls, and product testing.

However, the proposed legislation was sent to committee two years ago, with no vote on it expected anytime in the foreseeable future.

So what can you do in the meantime?

You may be asking what you can do about this as a consumer or as a voting constituent.

As a consumer, there are some ways to reveal what is really in our daily products. With apps like Think Dirty, you can scan the barcode of a PCP or search for it within the app. The app will then give the product a “dirty” rating based on the potential dangerousness of the ingredients. You may be surprised by how high some of your products rate.

As a constituent, you can contact your representatives in Congress and ask them to support the Safe Cosmetics and Personal Care Act, or similar measures that would increase the regulatory oversite of PCPs.

Keeping track of all the potential health impacts of the products we use in the shower every day can seem stressful, but it’s important to be aware of the potential health hazards.

With more research to raise awareness of these issues and better oversight of what goes into PCP products, we may all be able to wash our hair with less worry in the future.

About the Mass General Research Institute
Research at Massachusetts General Hospital is interwoven through more than 30 different departments, centers and institutes. Our research includes fundamental, lab-based science; clinical trials to test new drugs, devices and diagnostic tools; and community and population-based research to improve health outcomes across populations and eliminate disparities in care.
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