Busting the Myth: The True Story of Lead in Lipstick
The story was a hoax, according to Snopes, Urban Legends and the
cosmetics industry. The email claimed that popular brands of lipstick contain enough lead to cause cancer, and said consumers could test for lead by scratching lipstick with a 24K gold ring. It was widely dismissed as bogus netlore. But a closer look at the story reveals some selective hoax slaying. Importantly, it’s not cancer that scientists are most worried about with lead exposure, but rather brain damage and learning disabilities. Yet the lead story was widely dismissed because “there’s not enough lead in lipstick to cause cancer.” The stuff about the gold ring definitely is bogus. But the most important part of the story – the part most relevant to consumers – is actually true: popular brands of lipstick do contain dangerous amounts of lead. Lipstick wearers and Snopes believers, beware.
Read the real story in this Oct. 2007 report by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics: “A Poison Kiss: The Problem of Lead in Lipstick.”
October 10th, 2007 at 9:38 pm
[…] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptLead in lipstick? The story was a hoax, according to Snopes, UrbanLegends.com and the cosmetics industry. The source of the story was an email claiming that popular brands of lipstick contain dangerous amounts of lead, enough to cause … […]
November 13th, 2007 at 8:34 am
First, kids dying from lead in toys. Now, they find high levels of lead in lipsticks. What’s next - lead in food? Are women going to start dying now too from using lipstick too much?
Freaky!
There’s a detailed report about it at http://www.myproductalert.com/lead-in-lipsticks.html
January 11th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Lead is not a naturally assimilated compound in the human body system. That is to say, It does NOT make it through the excretory systems; which means, IT REMAINS AND ACCUMULATES IN OUR BODIES! For that reason alone, you don’t want to put ANY into your body, in the very FIRST place.
January 30th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Is my brand of lipstick on the lead list (lamcom)?
February 20th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
The link to download “A Poison Kiss” doesn’t work — please repair!
February 28th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
here is the direct link to the report, http://www.safecosmetics.org/docUploads/A%20Poison%20Kiss%2Epdf
thanks! I’ll fix it
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