Common method fails to find asbestos in cosmetics

Abstract

Cosmetics manufacturers often use an analytical method adopted by the industry in 1976 to determine whether talc-containing products are contaminated with the carcinogen asbestos. That method doesn’t always detect asbestos fibers that are present, however, according to a white paper released Jan. 13 by the US Food and Drug Administration . Written by a federal interagency working group, the white paper recommends that cosmetics manufacturers go beyond the 1976 method—X-ray diffraction followed by polarized light microscopy. The group suggests using X-ray diffraction followed by polarized light microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The FDA has been testing talc-containing cosmetics for asbestos for several years using the more extensive method. The agency became aware “that methods employed by some industry members to test for asbestos in talc-containing cosmetic products may not always detect the presence of asbestos,” Susan Mayne, director of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, says in