http://www.care2.com/greenliving/petroleum-jelly-on-your-face.html
Petroleum Jelly on Your Face?
A woman I know recently told me that she uses Vaseline on her face every night—as in, petroleum jelly? I asked. Oh yes, she replied. I wondered about the wisdom behind intentionally slathering oneself with a petroleum product. Some online sleuthing yielded a YouTube video of Tyra Banks so feverishly cheerleading for her No. 1 beauty secret, Vaseline petroleum jelly, that I thought it was a farce.
Sure enough, people love petroleum jelly and use it for any number of personal care applications. Petroleum jelly, also called petrolatum and commonly known by its trademark name, Vaseline, was developed in the 1860s by a chemist from New York who upon visiting an oil rig, noticed the raw material of petrolatum (a gooey substance known as “rod wax”) stuck to the drilling rigs. After much experimentation, he developed a process to distill the rod wax into petrolatum.
In its pure form, petrolatum is considered safe, but its varied and unregulated manufacturing procedures make the goopy jelly vulnerable to contamination by foreign elements, which may or may not pose cancer risks or other health issues. There is generally no way to know how the petrolatum was manufactured.
Petrolatum is listed as having the lowest hazard concern (0 on a scale of 1-10) by the Environmental Working Group in their Skin Deep database, however, that score only corresponds to 9 percent of the information known about the product, since 91 percent of the information is not known about its ingredients. Which is to say that the ingredients in petrolatum haven’t been studied enough to confidently know one way or the other if it’s safe. White petroleum, the main ingredient of petrolatum, has not been assessed by an industry panel.
Petrolatum’s only listed concern is possible contamination from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). PAHs are common contaminants in petrolatum. FDA restricts petrolatum in food to no more than 10 parts per million, and requires petrolatum used in food packaging or drugs to meet impurity restrictions for PAHs.
PAHs are linked to cancer (by 10 sources, including the EPA), reproductive/developmental toxicity (by the EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory, among other sources), endocrine disruption, persistence and bioaccumulation. They are banned for use in cosmetics in Europe and Canada.
In the United States, no requirement for refinement applies for petrolatum in personal care products. Hopefully most manufacturers likely choose refined petrolatum low in PAHs, but there is no guarantee.
Some product labels include the term “skin protectant” in parentheses after the petrolatum listing, an indication that the petrolatum has been refined and meets FDA requirements for drug applications. But in most cases a consumer buying a product containing petrolatum has no way of knowing if the ingredient is low in carcinogenic PAHs or not.
So, the jury’s still out on this one, kind of. For me, the stuff is just kind of gross, I’d much rather make a homemade olive oil and beeswax non-petroleum jelly or use one of these plant-based cosmetic oils on my face instead.
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5 comments
add your comment »Oh my god! I am in shock! I always use petrolatum on my lips! *.*
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why is this inappropriate?
I have sensitive/dry skin which does break out occasionally. Personally, petroleum jelly has been great during the harsh winters, and it has never affected my skin in a bad way (at least topically). That said, I no longer use it for the same reasons written in the article--if it might do something harmful, I'd rather not use it. Mineral oil used to be called liquid petrolatum--it's the same thing. Olive oil is lighter in feeling, and when I need something more moisturising I'll use avocado oil; less moisturising, grapeseed oil. The smell of vaseline is also off-putting (chemical).
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I cannot imagine slathering that comedogenic sludge on my face. Now, don't get me wrong, there are some perfectly good uses for Petroleum jelly. Like preventing rust, making your teeth shiny and keep your lips from sticking to them when you are in the Miss America pageant or if you plan on dyeing your hair, applying to the skin around your hairline so your forehead doesn't come out the same colour as your new hair colour. However, on my face . . . no.
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Why not try shea butter instead...You could try petroleum jelly, but it blocks the pores & causes blemishes & other yucky stuff to develop on your face.
Go to www.afroscentric.etsy.com & discover what my GRADE "A" PREMIUM UNREFINED SHEA BUTTER can do for your skin. My shea butter has been laboratory tested & is PROVEN to have skin healing benefits, moisturizing and protective qualities.
I found little quality control in the Shea Butter industry.
I cannot stress enough how important it is to buy from someone who knows about the products they are selling. You must know about items that you are putting on your skin & your children's skin, would you buy from someone who has NO idea what shea butter is, or how to SAFELY store or blend it?
Many people are only concerned with the bottom line and will sell anything if it makes them a profit. They want to sell good products, but do not have or seek the knowledge required to educate and inform their customers of the best solutions. I believe the best customer is a well informed customer, that is why I stress the importance of asking questions. I want to provide my clients with the BEST quality of products, and that is why I choose to learn as much as possible regarding the products I sell. In order for me to bring the best to you...I must learn & continuously strive to stay up on the newest forms of natural skin care and the effects of the products I sell.
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The FDA has no jurisdiction over the cosmetic industry - they only authority personal-care products manufacturers answer to is their own - they can say ad do whatever they wish. In a society where the dollar rules, they care little whether the ingredients they are using are harmful, because no one can do anything about it, and they are certainly not honor-bound to have concern for the consumers of their products. They go for cheap and easy, so does anyone really think their products aren't contaminated with harmful substances, not to mention consisting almost entirely of such? I don't trust any mainstream personal-care producer, and few of the 'green' ones either, and I encourage everyone to educate themselves more thoroughly on the issue. I invite anyone who's interested to visit my care2 blog to see my ongoing personal investigation into cosmetic ingredients and why they should be avoided. Don't poison yourself! Good article, thank you.
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