A working group of the Academy of Medicine has just published a statement on the risks of cosmetics for babies. According to its members,"worrying public opinion without evidence is in no way a scientific and ethical approach" and"the precautionary principle cannot justify a systematically alarmist attitude". The Minister of Health, who has just put forward the idea that a logo could be affixed to dangerous products, particularly for pregnant women and babies, will certainly appreciate…
10 December 2008 On 25 November last, Roselyne Bachelot, Minister for Health, proposed that a logo could warn pregnant women and young mothers of the dangers of certain reprotoxic compounds present in cosmetics (see ). In his communiqué, the Academy of Medicine gives him a more than cautious answer…
First, it states that the question of the risks of cosmetics for babies is situated in the general context of the exposure of the human organism to thousands of chemical compounds present in the environment. Gold, adds this text, analysis of long-term toxic effects is difficult ". While the experts of the working group established on this theme recognize that"the the physiology of infants, particularly premature infants, is specific to them ", they also recall that "many baby cosmetics have been used for several generations in the world with no apparent health consequences ".
Insisting on existing precautionary rules, the working group recommends, in addition to developing appropriate research on the toxicity of ingredients in cosmetics for young children:
- to limit as far as possible the number of ingredients used in the products intended for them,
- to favour the oldest known ingredients for their absence of toxicity in the short, medium …
