Nitrosamines

Because nitrosamines are created by reactions of chemical mixtures in products and therefore are not on the ingredient label, consumers cannot easily tell which products contain them. A good start is to avoid products with DEA, TEA and other ethanolamine compounds since these contribute to nitrosamine formation.

The FDA began watching personal care products for nitrosamines in 1979, and published a report stating that products containing nitrosamines could be seen as adulterated and subject to FDA enforcement. This led to a striking drop (from 150 ppm to 3 ppm) in concentrations in one form of nitrosamine-n-nitrosoethanolamine (NDELA) in testing 12 years later.^[7] In 1996, the FDA encouraged cosmetics manufacturers to voluntarily remove ingredients that could combine to form NDELA and to conduct testing to understand why cosmetics become contaminated with NDELA. Despite these encouragements, the Environmental Working Group found that one in every 10 products contains ingredients that can combine with others to form nitrosamines. A 1998 study by the U.K.’s Department of Trade and Industry showed that nitrosamine levels in some products actually increase in the months after a product is opened.^[8]