On 25 July 2013, the French ANSM, in the frame of its mission to monitor the cosmetics market, has released, on its website, a list of hair straightening products that contain formaldehyde in concentrations over the allowed upper limit. Much of them comes from Brazil and the USA, and may be for sale in French hair-dressers’.
In an opinion released on 27 December 2010, the French Afssaps (now, called ANSM; National Agency for Safety of Medicines and Health Products) reminded that “through the respiratory tract, after chronic exposure of Man, formaldehyde (Editor’s note: a preservative, often used in hair straightening products) is carcinogenic. Further, it is suspect in the development of leukaemia, sinus cancers and cancer of the nasal cavity. It may also induce ocular and respiratory irritations or contact eczema.” The Afssaps, in collaboration with the General Directorate for Fair Trading, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF), then, warned about some straightening products that contained formaldehyde, in concentrations above the upper limit allowed by the regulation. (ID 619)
In its recent press release, the ANSM publishes the exhaustive list of these products, found in the French market, but available also in Europe, in Canada and in the USA.
Thus, seventeen have been detected on the French market, 37 on the other markets.
On the French market, the products under consideration come from the USA, Brazil, Italy and Israel. We may add that some of them come with the “formaldehyde-free” mention!
Most of them are subject to withdrawal-from-the-market measures (this is the case for all those …
