This story was originally internal climate news, a nonprofit, independent news organization covering climate, energy, and the environment. Republished with permission.
For Janet Toomer, the time she spent years ago perfecting her hair wasn’t just a matter of style, it was also a cultural statement.
As a black woman who came of age in the 1970s, Toomer preferred natural hairstyles to those that required the use of chemicals. It’s a tribute to her self-empowerment and “back to roots” spirit that rippled throughout African-Americans. community in the years following the civil rights movement.
“I started braiding and Afro hair when I was in high school,” recalls Toomer, now 66 and living in New York. “At the time, we were trying to be all natural, black power, all that stuff. But when I was getting ready to graduate, I started letting my hair down.”
Worried that her natural style wouldn’t be taken seriously while pursuing a career as an actress, Toomer turned to chemical straighteners to straighten and smooth her naturally curly hair. Many of them rely on the toxic substance formaldehyde, which is a known carcinogen.
Now, Toomer fears the straightener has taken a terrible toll. Toomer says she can trace the cause of her diagnosis of stage 4 endometrial cancer in 2021, after more than 40 years of regular use of formaldehyde-based relaxants. she thinks. Her use of a hair iron.
“For years, we were using perm softeners, never knowing that we were giving ourselves cancer,” she says, adding that she and countless others who have used perm relaxers He mentioned about the number of black women there are. Providing chemical hair treatments since 1905. “I’ll never use it again. I’ll never use it again.”
This fall, The Food and Drug Administration proposed banning the use of formaldehyde and other formaldehyde-emitting chemicals as ingredients in hair-straightening or smoothing products, which can lead to cancer and a variety of other adverse health effects, including nervous system disorders, respiratory diseases, and skin diseases. It mentions the relationship with.
“Studies have shown that the use of heat-based hair straightening products containing formaldehyde, often marketed to black women, increases the risk of certain cancers, including certain upper respiratory tract cancers and myeloid leukemia. I understand,” he said. Namanje N. Bumpassthe FDA’s chief scientist noted that these health effects are “unacceptable.”
Mr. Bumpass, a black man, The proposed ban would help set the standard for “Promote safer alternatives and ensure everyone is protected from potentially harmful exposures.”
“This is a personal decision about how people want to present themselves,” Bumpass said in an interview with Inside Climate News, adding that these products disproportionately impact Black women. He added that Although African Americans make up 14 percent of the population, they spend nine times more on ethnic hair and beauty products than non-Black women, according to a recent Nielsen report.
Bumpass continued: “What’s important to me in my role is to make sure that everyone can do it in the healthiest way possible and that we really protect people’s health and prioritize people’s health. It’s about making sure those decisions are made.”
A study last fall highlighted the devastating effects of these exposures. National Institutes of Health finds increased risk of uterine cancer Percentage of women who used formaldehyde-based hair straightening products at least four times per year. The study found that the incidence of uterine cancer is increasing among black women in the United States, and that black women may be more affected by uterine cancer because they use curling irons more frequently.Another study by the same team It turns out that the risk of breast cancer is increased In connection with the use of curling irons and permanent hair dyes.
The NIH study is far from the first warning about formaldehyde’s potential dangers. 1987, The Environmental Protection Agency has designated the substance as a “probable human carcinogen.” announced the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a division of the World Health Organization. Similar findings after 1 year.
With years of scientific research in mind, researchers and policy advocates welcomed the FDA’s proposed ban. They also argue that the government needs to ban formaldehyde in all beauty and personal care products, not just chemical straighteners. They also note that the agency, which will soon be granted new authority to oversee cosmetics in December after nearly a century of minimal regulation in the U.S., will control other potentially dangerous ingredients. He expressed his hope that a detailed investigation would need to begin.
“It was like, ‘Finally, it’s time,'” said Ami Zota, a scientist at Columbia University. He focuses his research on the negative health effects of chemicals in beauty products. “The FDA is trying to take action here, motivated in part by science but also by increased public awareness and media attention on this issue. This effort is very piecemeal. It’s felt, and we accept it.”
Zota, associate professor of environmental health sciences, notes that: How racialized beauty norms are enforced on women of color They use cosmetics disproportionately and face greater threats from potentially harmful chemicals than white people.
The series of events that led the FDA to begin the process of banning formaldehyde is a story of outdated guidelines dating back 85 years and one of the largest changes in the federal agency’s efforts to regulate toxic substances often used in cosmetics. It became a hindrance. Government scientists are sending increasingly tense emails about the need to protect consumers from known carcinogens. This is also the story of how beauty industry lobbyists successfully thwarted efforts to tightly regulate chemicals. And there are women like Toomer who are asking themselves if they’re putting their health at risk for the sake of beauty.
Toomer points out that there is a relative lack of information about the harms of chemicals in hair care products. Infamous scientific research at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama The trial found that for 40 years, black men with syphilis were not informed about the condition or its treatment.
“So the fact that they sold it to us and didn’t tell us everything,” Toomer said, referring to formaldehyde-based hair relaxers. “This is just a history of black abuse.”
This article is the first in a series on Inside Climate News about how lax regulation of beauty products is victimizing women of color. ”abandonment of beauty” Victoria St. Martin reported this article while participating. USC Annenberg Health Journalism Center 2023 National Fellowship.
