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Sensitizing ingredients in cosmetic products for newborns and infants available in pharmacies and chemists stores
Karolina Jesien, Radoslaw Spiewak
Recommended citation format: Jesien K, Spiewak R: Sensitizing ingredients in cosmetic products for newborns and infants available in pharmacies and chemists stores. Estetol Med Kosmetol 2014; 4: 002.en.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14320/EMK.2014.002.en
Cosmetic products for the skin care in newborns and infants may cause untoward reactions, including allergies. The customers seem, however, to believe that skin care products on offer in pharmacies would be safer for the child's skin than those sold at chemists stores.
Aim: To compare cosmetic products for skin care of newborns and infants available at pharmacies and chemists stores with regard to the presence of known sensitizing potential.
Material and methods: Composition of 120 skin care products for newborns and infants was analyzed, including 60 products available from pharmacies and 60 from chemists stores. Declared product's content was scanned for the presence of sensitizing substances listed in Annexes III and VI to the EU's Cosmetics Directive, as well as other non-listed ingredients with sensitizing properties according to medical literature.
Results: Ingredients with known sensitizing potential were present in 52 (86.7%) cosmetics for newborns and infants from pharmacies and 58 (96.7%) from chemists stores (p=0.09). In other words, entirely free of sensitizers were only 8 (13.3%) analyzed products from pharmacies and 2 (3.3%) from chemists stores. Fragrances, upon which limits of use in cosmetics were imposed in Annex III and VI due to their irritating or sensitizing properties were present in 11 (18.3%) products from pharmacies and 12 (20.0%) analyzed products from chemists stores. Complex scents of undisclosed contents, hidden under the codename "Parfum" were present in 35 (58.3%) cosmetics from pharmacies and 47 (78.3%) from chemists stores (p=0.02). Preservatives listed in the EU Cosmetics Directive's annexes were in 24 (40.0%) analyzed cosmetics from pharmacies and 42 (70.0%) cosmetics from chemists stores (p<0.001). Other ingredients that were not mentioned in the Cosmetics Directive, whose sensitizing potential is nevertheless known from scientific literature, were present in respectively 15 (25.0%) and 26 (43.3%) products (p=0.03).
Conclusions: A vast majority of cosmetics for the skin care of newborns and infants sold in pharmacies and chemists stores contains known sensitizers, products free of problematic ingredients are somewhat more frequent on the shelves in pharmacies. In order to keep a newborn or infant safe from untoward reactions to skin care products, a great deal of caution is recommended and careful study of the list of ingredients of the product's in question, regardless of the place of purchase.
Keywords: cosmetics, skin care products, newborns, neonates, infants, allergy to cosmetics, risk of sensitization
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