Many women like to put lipstick on before they go out, or when they go to work. But have you ever wondered what lipstick exactly is, other than a stick of color. Lipstick is defined as an oil-based cosmetic that is usually applied on the lips. Lipstick and many lip-glosses contain high levels of potentially dangerous metals.

Some dangerous metals that could be found in lipsticks are cadmium, chromium, aluminum, lead, nickel, titanium, copper are some of the potentially dangerous metals that could be found in lipstick. “We looked at nine heavy metals and found that all of them were present in most of the lipsticks, but not necessarily at really high levels, study author Katharine Hammond, a professor of environmental health sciences with the University of California Berkeley’s School of Public Health told The Huffington Post. “Low levels of metals may not create a risk, but as the exposure increases, the damage can increase.” Over the span of the female life, it’s pretty obvious that lipstick may be applied at least 100,000 times. And that is a potentially eye-opening number, applying all these potentially dangerous metals on their lips. The most terrifying part about lipstick is that it is applied on the lips and therefore has a high risk of ingestion. Ingesting these metals, could potentially lead to many different health risks. “”The metals that we were really most concerned about were cadmium, chromium, aluminum and manganese,” Hammond said, explaining that overexposure to each carries risks. Chronic, low level exposure to cadmium, for example, has been linked to serious kidney problems.

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A study done by the Environmental Health Perspective concluded that it varies with the frequency of use. Their experiment consisted of an in-depth analysis of lipstick, using a method called plasma optical emission spectrometry. The results of this study were shocking. Most of the products tested had metals in it, but concentration varied by brand. They concluded that the FDA should monitor the metals in lip care products, because the risks of health defects are evident, for the future if ingested.

The average rate at which female’s apply lipstick is twice a day, according to this article on Huffington post. And just in applying lipstick twice daily, women are at risk because they could be potentially increasing the amount of these deadly metals they consume daily. There is not believed to be a safe level of lead exposure, and studies have shown that women are actually ingesting lead, in some brands of lipstick. The FDA has since looked into this problem, and has concluded that the metals are at such concentration; it doesn’t matter if it’s consumed. But that could prove to be deadly. Just imagine the problems if an individual just ate a stick of lipstick. More studies must be done in which women who use lipstick on different frequency are tracked; that could help establish a correlation between lipstick use and health problems.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/02/toxic-lipstick-metals_n_3195547.html

http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/121-a196/

http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/1205518/