The French parliament has passed a law banning the “production, importing, sale, and distribution of products containing phthalates, parabens, and alkylphenols”. This means the prohibition of using rather popular preservatives on the basis of parabens in cosmetics. Today they can be found in almost any cosmetic product.
These synthetic preservatives were discussed by the public after their presence in malignant breast tumors had been discovered. Apart from that, the data regarding their possible endocrine effect were published.
The scientific community has taken this information with skepticism, and the connection between cosmetic preservatives and breast cancer, as well as any hormonal disorders, have not been established. A lot of French producers decided not to defend the scientific truth, but to use the trend for the sake of marketing, replacing one preservative with another one and decorating the packages with the label “contains no parabens”.
It is curious that, according to the representative of one of the renowned French cosmetic companies, the words “contains no preservatives” mean only one thing: the product does not contain any preservatives approved by the European Union, and probably contains some other, since only hypoallergenic cosmetics can have no preservatives at all. Such cosmetics have a very short shelf life and should be kept in special airtight containers.
In addition to cosmetics, parabens and the preservatives mentioned in the law are used in household chemical goods and even in food products labeled as E 214, E 216, and E 218. The new French law was adopted by a very small majority of votes, and it still has to be approved by the Senate of the European Union.
Source of the image: Photl.
