Valisure, an analytical laboratory located in New Haven, Conn., Discovered that 70% of the tested 148 batches from 34 different spray-on dry shampoo brands contained benzene. In response, the company filed a petition with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday, urging for a recall of the products that contain this harmful substance. It is important to note that benzene has been linked to the development of specific blood cancers, including leukemia.
Undiscovered health hazards may potentially arise in over-the-counter products available in pharmacies and grocery stores throughout the United States, further raising concerns about the outcomes.
Manufacturers and regulators are closely examining whether impurities are slipping unnoticed in the complex supply chain, resulting in stores pulling products from shelves. Valisure found benzene in popular hand sanitizers, antiperspirants, and spray sunscreens over the last year.
Other brands such as John Paul Mitchell Systems, Sun Bum, and Batiste were discovered to contain increased levels of benzene. Dry shampoos, including the popular brand Not Your Mother’s, which promotes its use of “clean, quality ingredients,” were found to have the highest levels of benzene.
Essences Herbal and Pantene, as well as Unilever, along with Head Bed and Suave Dove, have already recalled shampoos that contain elevated levels of benzene. This includes products that Valisure’s petition didn’t include.
The research demonstrated that the levels of benzene discovered by Valisure in certain dry shampoos, utilized for revitalizing hair in between washes, are notably higher compared to any personal-care items previously examined by the laboratory.
Comment for immediate response requests did not come from Systems Mitchell Paul John and Bum Sun Mother’s. Valisure’s petition to evaluate their products confirmed that their suppliers’ ingredients did not contain the mentioned chemical. The company had previously tested whether Batiste had been tested for the chemical.
According to a research firm in Chicago called IRI, sales of dry shampoo were up 22% from the previous year. Among the top 10 brands, Batiste was the top-selling dry shampoo brand, making up 44% of the sales in July, with a total of $309 million. Other popular dry shampoo brands include Dove and Mother’s Your Not, but Batiste is the clear leader.
Consumption has increased significantly. We are unable to meet the demand completely. Batiste is performing exceptionally well. The market share of the company, which gave 46% in the previous year, increased by 37% in the third quarter. Matt Farrell, the Chief Executive of Dwight & Church, informed investors about the earnings during a conference call.
According to Valisure’s findings, Batiste Bare Dry Shampoo had 15 parts per million of benzene in a single spray. Previous studies have shown that antiperspirants contained 18 parts per million, hand sanitizers contained 16 parts per million, and sunscreens contained up to 6 parts per million. However, in one spray from one can, Not Your Mother’s Beach Babe dry shampoo contained a significantly higher amount of benzene with 158 parts per million.
The FDA also employs a risk assessment, which is an additional occurrence of cancer per 100,000 individuals, that may arise from chronic exposure to benzene at levels of 0.4 parts per billion (0.0004 parts per million) throughout one’s lifetime, as declared by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“A multitude of individuals utilize it once per day or on several occasions within a week,” declared David Light, Chief Executive Officer of Valisure. “Dry shampoo is not a commodity that you employ solely once and consider it complete.”
Unilever did not respond to questions about the levels of benzene found in its products. An independent health hazard evaluation, based on the detected levels of benzene in the recalled products, stated that adverse health consequences would not be expected from daily exposure to benzene. Unilever made statements into high numbers when it recalled products such as Rockaholic and Bed Head dry shampoos, Suave, Tresemme, and Dove on 18 October.
“We had observed substantial levels of benzene in Unilever merchandise prior to their recall,” Light mentioned, refusing to disclose specific quantities.
No other prominent manufacturer of consumer goods has publicly revealed similar internal testing. P&G conducted a comprehensive examination of its entire line of aerosol products following the findings from Valisure’s previous research. P&G took the initiative to recall dry shampoo in December, removing Pantene and Herbal Essences variants from store shelves.
In the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the market saw the introduction of some hand sanitizers and aerosol products from brands like Old Spice and Secret Gamble’s Procter. However, Valisure discovered high levels of benzene in various versions of sunscreens and spray antiperspirants from Neutrogena and Johnson & Johnson.
The grooming supply chains bring products to consumers that are complex endeavors, where determining the toxic substances precisely is difficult on a global scale.
Light expressed his concern about the alarmingly high levels of contamination in homes, stating that it is worrisome that the product is still on the shelf even after going through various quality checkpoints and being touched by various individuals throughout the entire global supply chain. This raises potential issues of raw materials being contaminated and needing to be traced back.
The FDA has confirmed that propellants used in personal-care products, such as butane and propane, which are made from crude oil refining and often contain benzene, have the potential to be a source of contamination. Some companies have pointed out the problem of propellants, including dry shampoos, in personal-care spray products, and it is supposed that these products should be purified to ensure that there is no benzene present.
The company stated that the unexpected levels of benzene contamination came from the propellant used in the sunscreen spray product. Edgewell Personal Care Co. Recalled its Banana Boat Scalp & Hair aerosol sunscreen on July 29th.
The FDA has requested companies that produce drug products with a high likelihood of benzene contamination, such as sunscreen, to undergo testing for the presence of this substance.
Dry shampoo is a cosmetic product that is regulated by the FDA, although not as strictly as drugs.
If “utilization is inevitable in order to create a medication with a noteworthy therapeutic breakthrough,” the FDA permits concentrations of 2 parts per million of benzene in medication submissions. The goods must not include “any toxic or harmful substance,” however, the FDA has not established benzene thresholds for beauty products.
Valisure has requested the FDA to clarify guidelines for testing benzene in cosmetics and develop an acceptable level of benzene in cosmetic products.
The laboratory stated in the petition that Valisure’s examination revealed significant disparity in sprays, including those from the identical container, indicating possible irregularity in the formulation and/or misting process of certain products. Specifically, the concentration of benzene in the fourth spray was 93 parts per million, while the initial spray of Not Your Mother’s Clean Freak dry shampoo contained a higher concentration of 143 parts per million.
Valisure’s discoveries, including a roster of tainted dry shampoos, can be located in the appeal it submitted with the FDA.
The pollution could potentially be higher than the results indicated, as demonstrated by a more comprehensive study.
Syft, a company headquartered in Pittsburgh, is partnered with a lab in New Zealand called Technologies. This lab sells and designs gas trace analysis equipment that can conduct direct air-measurement tests to capture benzene levels with more precision. Valisure, a research organization, has taken a more comprehensive approach and has been testing for benzene in personal-care products, including their dry shampoo, for some time.
Valisure, using Syft’s method, can determine the actual levels of benzene in dry shampoo spray-on products, which could be higher than 50 times the standard testing levels. Syft’s method uses an aerosol spray to detect chemical levels, including benzene, in the air. Before measuring, Valisure follows a standard procedure that requires putting a sample into a vial, as some chemicals may escape.
For example, using data calculated by Valisure, drugs in Your Mother’s Not the FDA can total 340 million parts per 170 times or per 15 minutes of measurements taken with Syft in a 550 cubic foot space, showing an exposure of about 36 billion parts per billion of benzene over a longer term. In the initial cloud of a 10-second spray of Your Mother’s Not dry shampoo, Syft found levels of benzene that were 4,000 times higher than the EPA’s guidance of 1,600 parts per billion.
Information based on Syft’s discoveries is likely to more accurately resemble real-life situations.