Question on Benzoyl Peroxide

I just read something interesting on Facebook from a natural skin line Facebook page about this. I put the link to the page below. If need be, I can paste the text. The part that caught my attention was the line saying BP is banned in Europe. I hadn't heard that before, but when I hear that about an ingredient, I take notice. I won't use hydroquinone because of that (and other) reasons. But Europe is further advanced than us in skin care, so I trust when they decide an ingredient is harmful enough to be banned. Thoughts on this?

https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/facenaturals

We have a discussion on the main discussion page as well. Someone posted a copy/paste from a page called Green Beauty. What I'm most curious about is BP being banned in Europe. I wasn't aware of this, and I wonder if it will affect how anyone prescribes BP going forward. Thanks everyone!

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by NBSkinCare on January 24, 2013 at 3:10pm

My understanding is that it is not Banned. Its just not available over the counter, like it is here. I believe in Europe you need a prescription.

Permalink Reply by Jodi on January 24, 2013 at 3:17pm

OK. The link I shared they outright say it's banned. I've heard that about hydroquinone as well, I will have to research if that's the same thing, need a prescription. But the fact remains here, you can go to any drugstore and buy 5 or 10% BP. If it's that dangerous, I would hope someone is looking into it here.

Permalink Reply by Laura Cooksey on January 24, 2013 at 4:22pm

I just put the question out to the European estheticians on my Acne Specialists board on LinkedIn to see if this is true. I doubt that it is. The FDA in the United States has claimed that bpo is safe to use.

Permalink Reply by Jodi on January 24, 2013 at 4:29pm

Great! Thank you and please keep us updated. Appreciate it!

Permalink Reply by Brigitte McDonald on January 24, 2013 at 6:52pm

Check out this article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzoyl_peroxide it explains BP in more detail. Referring to journals and cancer and human toxicity.

I believe Facenaturals is not checking their refs very well, a marketing ploy.

Permalink Reply by Laura Cooksey on January 25, 2013 at 11:07am

Ok, here's the answer I got:

"Benzoyl Peroxide was listed originally on Annex II of the European Unions Directive for Cosmetics. Annex II is substances that are banned. However note this was not for facial use but use in artificial nail products. Benzoyl peroxide use n nails is in the polymerization of acrylates. Originally it was banned because studies have shown that benzoyl peroxide causes tumour growth in mice.

It has since been changed to Annex III which is substances that are permitted in restrictions. Again this applies to artificial nails, where Benzoyl Peroxide is limited to 0.7%.

Benzoyl peroxide is currently listed as a grade III Carcinogen by the IARC.
It has studies in animals that have shown carcinogenicity. There are also human studies that have shown an increase in cancer rates but SCCS believes there is insufficient evidence in humans to decisively come to that conclusion.

Currently Benzoyl Peroxide is listed as safe for facial cosmetic application. "

Permalink Reply by Jodi on January 25, 2013 at 12:47pm

Thank you. I really feel like posting that to their link, as they are using scare tactics to sell people stuff that is probably made in the kitchen.

Permalink Reply by Brigitte McDonald on January 25, 2013 at 3:58pm

I did post something on their site about questioning the "ban". You should post Laura's info, it contains alot of good info, although I wouldn't get surprised if it somehow got "deleted", but I'd post it anyways.

Permalink Reply by Jodi on January 25, 2013 at 4:39pm

I did. I notice they only posted the 1st part of that.

Permalink Reply by Jodi on February 4, 2013 at 6:24pm

I posted that information on their FB post, along with a disclaimer that I am a licensed esty and and I hope would could all work together. They didn't delete it, but also never responsed, and neither has anyone else who was posting about how bad BP is. Interesting.

Permalink Reply by Brigitte McDonald on February 4, 2013 at 7:11pm

People like to believe what they want to believe. Besides, you just proved them and many other of their "facebookers" wrong. Do you think they know enough about BPO to try to debate with you? I think all of us esty's who viewed this post should ALL post the same info on the site. He-he... Wouldn't that be funny? Like an online protest!