High Levels of Lead in Lipstick

Here's the article.

Excerpt:

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Lipsticks tested by a U.S. consumer rights group found that more than half contained lead and some popular brands including Cover Girl, L'Oreal and Christian Dior had more lead than others, the group said on Thursday. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics said tests on 33 brand-name red lipsticks by the Bodycote Testing Group in Santa Fe Spring, California, found that 61 percent had detectable lead levels of 0.03 to 0.65 parts per million (ppm).

Lipstick, like candy, is ingested. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a coalition of public health, environmental and women's groups, said the FDA has not set a limit for lead in lipstick.

One-third of the lipsticks tested contained an amount of lead that exceeded the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's 0.1 ppm limit for lead in candy -- a standard established to protect children from ingesting lead, the group said. Thirty-nine percent of the lipsticks tested had no discernible lead, it said.

When I was pregnant with Josie, I worked selling cosmetics at a department store. Ultima II is a Revlon company, so I will check them out. There was also the Iman line, she had really pretty lipsticks. I don't know who owns that company. Color Me Beautiful was my line, I wore two colors Cinnamon and Terra Cotta by the Color Me Beautiful line just about every day, and if it came off, it was reapplied. I never wiped off my lipstick before I ate either. After working there for so many years, I just thought I looked sick without makeup. I wonder how much it costs to get a tube of lipstick tested for lead?

This is the bit of the article that really got my attention:

Lead can cause learning, language and behavioral problems such as reduced school performance and increased aggression. Pregnant women and young children are particularly vulnerable to lead exposure, the group said in its statement.

Well, that's pretty much what we're dealing with.

Update: It may all be a bunch of hooey.