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That women love beauty is a given. Mascara, lipstick, lotion, creams: they all sound and look harmless. What if all the while you’ve been applying layers upon layers of a disaster waiting to happen? The bane of the beautiful, apparently, could be in the devices they employ to cut down the ages off their foreheads, eyes and lips. In February 2012, America’s Washington Post reported that over 400 shades of a popular lipstick contained the deadly metal lead, according to Food and Drug Administration (FDA), America’s equivalent of Kenya’s Pharmacy and Poisons Board.
The Washington Post farther reported that the FDA had downplayed the levels of lead in the products as ‘not dangerous’. This however did not stop widespread outcry from consumer rights groups who believed gullible users of the beauty products deserve a proper investigation to ascertain (with scientific conclusion) the safety of the products.
According to Dr Pranav Pancholi, a privately practising dermatologist and a consultant on skin healthcare, any product containing lead and used either for ingestion or topical application, may allow the element into the blood stream. Once in the blood, lead cause a number of diseases - brain lesion, kidney failure, liver failure, mental retardation and skin problems.
“The lead is absorbed through mucous membranes. The more the user continues with any products containing lead, the higher the risk of getting lead poisoning,” he pointed out. What should worry women though is the effect of the element on pregnancy, because high lead levels in the body have been associated with miscarriages. And even when a pregnancy is carried to term, the baby is prone to suffer from a variety of conditions.
According to the Centre for Disease Control (CDC), chemical exposure during pregnancy is potentially harmful to the developing foetus, as the placenta cannot protect against heavy metals such as lead and mercury. Cord blood mercury levels have been associated with childhood cognitive function.
High levels of lead exposure during pregnancy have been associated with adverse birth outcomes and, in some studies, relatively low lead levels have recently been associated with a small risk of decreased birth weight. The best way to find out if you have lead in your blood stream is through blood screening.
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