{"id":6249,"date":"2017-02-27T12:46:25","date_gmt":"2017-02-27T17:46:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/?p=6249"},"modified":"2025-12-03T15:22:56","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T20:22:56","slug":"lead-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/2017\/02\/27\/lead-head\/","title":{"rendered":"Dad\u2019s lead-laden hair dye could impact the whole family: FDA to consider barring lead compound in widely-used men\u2019s hair dyes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jack Pratt<\/a>\u00a0is\u00a0Chemicals Campaign Director<\/em><\/p>\n

Today, EDF joined a group of advocates in filing a petition<\/a> that could force a ban on lead in hair dyes. Over the last several decades, we have gone to great lengths to reduce lead exposure\u2014from eliminating the use of lead in gasoline, to tackling legacy uses in paint and water pipes. Yet, somewhat incredibly, lead is still permitted in hair dyes in the United States. Unfortunately, the evidence indicates that use can have an impact not only on the men who use it (it is seemingly exclusive to men\u2019s dyes) but can have an impact on kids in the house too. That\u2019s why FDA should take action and reverse their decades-old approval of lead in hair dyes.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

No one contests that lead is a potent neurotoxin, with an especially devilish impact on<\/p>\n

kids. Children with elevated blood lead levels can see life-long impacts, including lost IQ points<\/a>, ADHD and other significant cognitive and health impacts. While there are still critical areas that require attention\u2014such as the lead pipes<\/a> providing drinking water to millions of Americans and the hazard of old lead paint<\/a>\u2014decades of work on lead policies has made a real impact, resulting in significant declines<\/a> in children\u2019s exposure. Some of these policy initiatives were quite dramatic, like removing lead from gasoline, but the societal impact has been well worth the trouble.<\/p>\n

For all that work, it is surprising\u2014astonishing really\u2014that an intentional, purely cosmetic use of lead remains permitted. Today you can walk into almost any drug store or supermarket in the United States and purchase a so-called \u201cprogressive\u201d men\u2019s hair dye<\/a> that could contain as much as one gram of lead. While use of lead acetate in hair dyes is prohibited in Canada and the European Union, the U.S. FDA approved of such use in 1980. That approval included only minimal restrictions\u2014a vague warning label and that the dye only be used on the scalp, not on facial hair. The levels of lead in the product are allowed to be as high as 6000 ppm. To put that in perspective, three years before FDA\u2019s decision, the Consumer Product Safety Commission banned the sale of household paint containing more than 600 ppm of lead.<\/p>\n

The petition filed by EDF and our colleagues cites cases where users of such hair dyes have noticed real health impacts, including one user who didn\u2019t realize it should not be used on facial hair and lost feeling in his hands and feet. He did not return to normal for a year.<\/p>\n

Perhaps more notably, however, the petition cites major advances in science since the 1980 FDA decision that show the risks go beyond the users themselves and put other members of their family at risk. One such study showed lead contamination from the hair dyes\u2014especially on surfaces touched after using the hair dye like blow-dryers, combs and faucets\u2014and found these surfaces had up to 2,804 micrograms of lead per square foot. In 2001, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said that more than 40 micrograms of lead per square foot on the floor posed a hazard to children.<\/p>\n

I certainly understand the desire for a youthful appearance\u2014I\u2019ve got more than a few grey hairs myself. But as the parent of two small children, there is simply no contest for where my priorities lie, especially since there are many hair dyes that do not contain lead. I\u2019m sure that many, if not most, users of these products have no idea they could be putting their health and that of their families at risk. FDA now has 6 months to review the petition and make a final decision. This should be a no-brainer\u2014FDA should take action to protect Americans from this unnecessary source of lead exposure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jack Pratt\u00a0is\u00a0Chemicals Campaign Director Today, EDF joined a group of advocates in filing a petition that could force a ban on lead in hair dyes. Over the last several decades, we have gone to great lengths to reduce lead exposure\u2014from eliminating the use of lead in gasoline, to tackling legacy uses in paint and water …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39717,"featured_media":6252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,1,44,114106,56096],"tags":[91633,39158],"coauthors":[114094],"class_list":["post-6249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fda","category-general-interest","category-policy","category-lead","category-omboira","tag-fda","tag-lead"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39717"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6249"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13408,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6249\/revisions\/13408"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6249"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=6249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}