Choosing safer personal care products can help lower exposures to risky chemicals

Women who selectively purchase personal care products based on their ingredients were successfully able to lower their exposures to several chemicals associated with health risks. The peer-reviewed findings from a study of Black and Latina women in South Los Angeles are published in the journal Environmental Justice.

The Taking Stock Study is a community-academic partnership between Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, University of California, Santa Barbara, Silent Spring Institute, LA Grit Media, and Black Women for Wellness that explores the impacts of beauty products on Black and Latina women in California—a population disproportionately burdened by exposure to potentially harmful chemicals in cosmetics, hair products, menstrual/intimate care products, and leave-on and rinse-off products like body lotions and soaps.

The study team asked 35 Black women and 35 Latinas in South Los Angeles about their personal care product shopping behaviors. They also collected urine samples and analyzed them for 28 personal care product chemicals, including phthalates, parabens, oxybenzone, and bisphenol A (BPA). All the Black women and two-thirds of the Latina group frequently reported choosing products that do not contain harmful ingredients. Most participants said they shopped for unscented products; many also sought out BPA-free products.

Black women who chose products without fragrance had less than half the concentrations of the metabolite of diethyl phthalate in their urine compared to women who did not avoid fragranced products. Phthalates are known to disrupt the body’s hormone system and are linked to risk for obesity and diabetes, among other health risks. Latinas who chose products without the UV filter oxybenzone had significantly lower levels of the chemical in their urine than those who did not avoid it. Oxybenzone (also known as BP-3) is a chemical used in sunscreens and may also disrupt the body’s hormone system.

All women who avoided products with parabens—a class of chemicals used as preservatives—had two times lower concentrations of methyl and propyl paraben. However, these findings did not reach statistical significance.

“To fill a regulatory gap, Black women and Latinas have had to become chemistry experts to shop for beauty products. It is great that shopping choices can make a difference and lower exposures to some harmful chemicals. However, the burden to protect oneself from risky products should not be on the consumer,” says study co-first author Lariah Edwards, PhD, associate research scientist in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia Mailman School.

“There needs to be changes in the marketplace and in policy to protect consumers,” adds one of the study’s senior authors, Ami Zota, ScD, associate professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia Mailman School. 

“While a ‘shopping clean’ strategy is helpful, ultimately it is insufficient,” Zota continues. “We need laws that prioritize transparency in labeling requirements, especially for fragrance, since complex mixtures of scent ingredients are simply listed as ‘fragrance’ or ‘parfum’ on product labels. We also need an industry-standard definition of ‘clean’ because, currently, clean beauty is a marketing term, not a legally defined or regulated one, making its meaning different for every brand. And we need to incentivize companies to make and sell safer products for all populations, especially those who are overburdened by environmental chemical pollution.” 

Another barrier to “shopping clean” is the availability and affordability of “clean” beauty products, particularly in low-income neighborhoods. Additionally, language barriers may exist for individuals who cannot read ingredient lists in English. 

While the study showed that participants who avoided certain ingredients had lower levels of some chemicals versus those participants who did not avoid certain ingredients, few participants were familiar with the chemicals themselves, suggesting the need for increased education about chemicals in personal care products.

“While we actively work and advocate for stronger regulations, we will educate, inform, train, and support women making healthy choices,” says Janette-Robinson Flint, study co-author and executive director of Black Women for Wellness (BWW). 

BWW facilitates quarterly workshops called Curls & Conversations, designed for and by Black women to share resources on how to style hair with fewer chemicals. These workshops also help to raise awareness about harmful ingredients and empower women to make healthier purchasing choices. Other groups, including WE ACT in New York City, have organized similar educational events. LA Grit Media trains a new cohort of Community Health Promoters in South Los Angeles yearly on environmental hazards in neighborhoods, such as toxic chemicals found in skin lighteners and other personal care products; the organization also works to strengthen community capacity for advocacy around this issue. 

“Our community-academic partnership has included participants often excluded from research. Through this study, we better understand that women living in an environmentally overburdened community in Los Angeles face tough trade-offs and significant barriers to information when selecting their personal care products. Yet, community efforts such as BWW’s that support strategic shopping for safer products can have important benefits,” says study co-senior author Bhavna Shamasunder, PhD, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

The study’s co-first author is Catherine Connolly, PhD, formerly a postdoctoral research scientist in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia Mailman School. Additional authors include Robin E. Dodson, Bethsaida Cardona, and Elissia T. Franklin at Silent Spring Institute; Astrid Williams from Black Women for Wellness; and Sandy Navarro from LA Grit Media.

Funding for the study was provided by the California Breast Cancer Research Program (grants B28TP5728, 23UB-651), Passport Foundation, Forsythia Foundation, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (ES009089), and gifts to Silent Spring Institute.

The authors declare no competing interests.

Personal Care Product Research at the Columbia Mailman School

Earlier this year, Zota, Edwards,  and colleagues published research from the Taking Stock Study, which found that more than half of participants reported using personal care products that contain formaldehyde-releasing preservatives. Formaldehyde is known to cause cancer in humans. In 2024, researchers published a study finding that Black Americans and people with less formal education are more likely to use scented and scent-altering menstrual and intimate care products than other groups. Another study examined how racialized beauty norms that motivate the use of chemical hair straighteners and skin lighteners are linked to poor health outcomes. Related research by Adana Llanos, associate professor of epidemiology, found a relationship between hair dye use and breast cancer risk in both Black and white women(link is external and opens in a new window), and that longer-term and earlier use of hair dyes and relaxers is associated with more aggressive tumor features(link is external and opens in a new window).