A warning is sometimes enough, when relayed by a buzz shown over and over the world over on the Internet and in media, for "discovering" the undesirable potential of a cosmetic ingredient. This occurs with Methylisothiazolinone, a preservative, pointed out now as "seriously irritant and allergenic". In fact, as things move quickly to go from one side to the other, some voices are now heard to bring in back … parabens. What should we think about that? CosmeticOBS-L’Observatoire des Cosmétiques gives some explanations.
The warning comes from the renowned Société Française de Dermatologie (SFD; French Society of Dermatology). During its Meetings on Dermatology, held in December 2012, a conference was about the undesirable reactions due to the use of Methylisothiazolinone (MIT). An important remark: dermatologists report more frequent reactions to this preservative, mainly as contact eczema.
Few days were needed for the information to flow on the Internet, in the smallest blogs as in more official sites. Very often, the information is provided with many approximations and accuracies.
Let us come back to the facts.
What is readable on the web
MIT is a new preservative.
Wrong. Methylisothiazolinone is in the list of preservatives authorized in cosmetic by the European regulation (Annex VI of the Directive on cosmetics) since 1976. It is also used the world over since decades.
In Europe, its upper allowed concentration on cosmetic products is 0.01% when used alone.
MIT is used in lieu of parabens.
This is only partially true. If it is right that consumers’ suspicion to parabens led to the industry substituting them very often in its products, it is not always with Methylisothiazolinone. Other substances are also used more frequently, such as Chlorphenesin or formaldehyde …
