Is the preservative in my body wash bad for skin?
Traci asks (via FaceBook)…Can’t Quaternium-15 be a skin irritant?
The Beauty Brains respond:
Quaternium-15 is a formaldehyde-releasing preservative commonly used in cosmetics. (We recently mentioned it in our post on Aveeno Daily Moisturizing Body Wash.) But is it safe?
Pros and cons of a preservative
Quaternium-15 is sold in a variety of forms and is commonly used because it’s very effective against a broad-spectrum of microbials including bacteria, fungi, molds. In addition it is cost effective and easy to formulate with. However, a number of studies have shown that it can cause allergic contact dermatitis. If you’d like more background, Dermnet has a nice explanation how some individuals may become sensitized to formaldehyde containing materials and may have a reaction to Quaternium-15.
Quick research review
Bad: One study (E. Warshaw, et al. Contact dermatitis of the hands: Cross-sectional analyses of North American Contact Dermatitis Group Data, 1994-2004. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, Volume 57, Issue 2, Pages 301-314) found that it was responsible for over 16% of about 1000 allergic contact dermatitis cases studied.
Good, sort of: The “Final Report on the Safety Assessment of Quaternium-15″ published in the International Journal of Toxicology says Quaternium-15 “is not a primary skin irritant in humans” but may be a human sensitizer in some clinical patients. It safe at concentrations “...
Source: thebeautybrains.com - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: thebeautybrains Tags: Questions Source Type: blogs
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