rewrite this title Researchers Find Formaldehyde Lurking in Soaps, Lotions, and Other Personal Care Products

More than half of Black and Latina women could be using products that contain formaldehyde, a preservative linked to uterine and some rare types of cancer, a small study found. Researchers found the chemical lurking in daily items like soaps, lotions, and face creams.

Formaldehyde is included in a range of items, and personal care products are just one route of exposure, said lead author Robin Dodson, ScD, a research scientist at the Silent Spring Institute, a Massachusetts-based research organization that studies the link between chemicals and health outcomes. “But it all adds up,” she said.

Here’s what to know about formaldehyde, why manufacturers include it in personal care products, and how to avoid it.

Formaldehyde is a colorless, odorless gas. Living things, including people and plants, produce it during normal metabolic processes. But it’s also used as a preservative in a wide variety of products, from building materials to paints and plastics. 

While the European Union prohibits formaldehyde and some chemicals that release formaldehyde in cosmetics, most states (except California and Maryland, which implemented bans earlier this year) permit manufacturers to add these substances.

People become exposed to formaldehyde by:

InhalationIngestionAbsorption through the skin

Breathing in formaldehyde can cause issues like burning in the eyes and nose, wheezing, and coughing. “Some studies suggest that formaldehyde could increase the risk of asthma,” said Lesliam Quirós-Alcalá, PhD, an exposure scientist and environmental epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University. 

Some research has linked longer-term exposure to certain types of cancer, such as that of the nasal sinus and myeloid leukemia. The National Toxicology Program, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, classified formaldehyde as “a known human carcinogen” in 2011. 

How big a health risk formaldehyde exposure poses depends on many factors, including age and pre-existing health conditions. “How much and how often a person is exposed” also matters, Quirós-Alcalá told Health.

Previous research has found that Black and Latina women are more often exposed to formaldehyde and formaldehyde-releasing preservatives in nail and hair care products, such as chemical straighteners. But researchers wanted to get a better idea of how prevalent they were in more ubiquitous personal care and cosmetic products, which include the chemicals to prevent the growth of bacteria and other microbes.

The study was part of a bigger initiative called the Taking Stock Study, which investigates how exposures to chemicals in beauty products contribute to health inequities for Black and Latina women living in California. 

For this study, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters, 70 Black and Latina women living in South Los Angeles logged every personal care or cosmetic product, such as eyeliner, eyelash glue, or mascara, they used during one week in 2021.

The researchers tracked 35 ingredients in the more than 1,100 unique products the women reported using. About 4% of the products used contained formaldehyde or formaldehyde-releasing preservatives, but more than half of the women—53%—reported using them.

“That prevalence seems low, but there are a lot of people using these products and sometimes women are using these multiple times a day,” Dodson told Health.

Lotion, face creams, and soaps emerged as the most common products containing formaldehyde or formaldehyde-releasing chemicals.

Twenty percent of the lotions used contained formaldehyde-releasing preservatives, 12 of which were from the same brand, Bath & Body Works. Over a five-day period, 20 women in the study reported using lotions with formaldehyde-releasing preservatives 76 times. More than 70% of products that contained formaldehyde-releasing preservatives were used at least twice by participants over the week. 

Of the products in the study that contained formaldehyde-releasing preservatives, nearly half of all skincare products and 58% of hair products contained one called DMDM hydantoin—sometimes listed on product ingredient lists as Glydant. The second most common was diazolidinyl urea, which was included in 17 of the 41 products, largely skincare-related.

Four products contained imidazolidinyl urea, and two—a body lotion and a shampoo—contained multiple formaldehyde-releasing preservatives.

People should be aware of other preservatives, such as parabens, which also come with potential health risks, said Emily Barrett, PhD, a professor of epidemiology and deputy director of the Rutgers Center for Environmental Exposures and Disease at Rutgers University, who was not involved with the new study.

“That said, there are many other preservatives that are widely used in products that come with fewer known health risks,” she told Health. 

The Environmental Working Group, which catalogs ingredient lists in thousands of personal care and cosmetic products, generally considers three preservatives safe to be used in personal care products:

propylene glycolcaprylyl glycol sorbitan caprylate  

Federal agencies have been slow to regulate formaldehyde in personal care products. The Food and Drug Administration was expected to decide in April 2024 whether to ban formaldehyde in hair straightening products, but that decision continues to be delayed. Without widespread regulation in the U.S., it’s largely up to consumers to know what they’re buying. 

“The takeaway should not be that the consumer can shop their way out of it. There needs to be actions at different levels, but right now nothing has happened at the federal levels,” Dodson said.  

According to experts, consumers worried about formaldehyde should:

Review ingredient lists. Check product packaging for the five common formaldehyde-releasing preservatives and the names they’re often listed under. The Silent Spring Institute’s website includes the ones mentioned above, as well as the following:

Chemicals that end in -dehydeParaform Methylene glycol FormolQuaternium-15Sodium hydroxymethylglycinate

Download apps. Dodson recommended the Detox Me or Clearya apps, which can help decode a product’s ingredients. The Environmental Working Group’s Healthy Living app is another option. “Research shows that when people use tools like clean beauty apps, they end up using products that are safer,” Barrett said.

Try not to panic. While you may be tempted to ditch your entire collection of personal care products, Barrett recommends slowly replacing products as they run out. “When you finish a product, use an app to find a safer replacement,” she said, adding that people should pay special attention to products they use often or leave on their skin, such as lotions, creams, and makeup.