Search Here

The biggest scare of Halloween comes from Halloween makeup products like face paints laden with toxic chemicals deemed unsafe for kids. These makeup products contained toxic heavy metals like lead, cadmium, arsenic and chromium.

The Breast Cancer Fund (BCF) recently published a study on the safety of makeup palettes intended for use by children for Halloween. The study tested 48 makeup palettes and 50 percent of the samples had toxic chemicals.

Almost 20 percent of the samples had lead, which is potentially harmful in whatever quantity particularly to children. The BCF study is the first of its kind to test children’s makeup products.

A report from KGW News shows Jen Coleman of the Oregon Environmental Council raising the alarm on harmful Halloween makeup products. She claims that even a minuscule amount of lead ingested by a small child can result in lead poisoning, which can affect proper brain development.

Coleman further reiterated the lack of regulation and power of the FDA when it comes to ensuring the safety of Halloween makeup products. The agency has no power to require testing before the products are distributed for public consumption. It can only give “guidelines” on how to avoid adverse reactions.

The makers of Halloween makeup products are not even required by law to list the ingredients on the labels. Not knowing the danger, parents could easily buy these items to apply on their children’s faces especially for Halloween.

The best recourse for parents is to choose all natural organic makeup products or at least avoid dark pigments. The BCF study has found that darker pigments contain more toxic chemicals.

Clearly the 75 year old Cosmetic Safety Law needs to be amended so that testing will be mandatory. Before then, parents need to be cautious and even scared in making purchases when it comes to products for children.