Listen up ladies. Those of you who spend hours dying, fixing and straightening your hair you should know the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning about a popular product. The Brazilian Blowout hair company markets several kinds of products and health experts say the products contain a dangerous level of formaldehyde.
What’s the problem?
Products tested by the FDA show formaldehyde levels reaching 10 percent, when levels over 0.1 percent are considered dangerous. “Formaldehyde, commonly found in a number of ‘Brazilian style’ keratin-based hair straighteners, is extremely dangerous and a known carcinogen,” the FDA says.
Other countries including Australia, Canada, Ireland and France have already banned the products.
If the product is dangerous, why is it still on the shelf?
“If consumers have been wondering why they’ve still been able to get Brazilian Blowouts despite so much troubling news, the answer is because our regulatory system is broken,” Anuja Mendiratta of the California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative says in the FDA statement. “Laws that are supposed to protect consumers and workers simply aren’t enough. Even when a product has clearly been shown to poison people, the FDA has little authority to take immediate meaningful action in the case of cosmetics.”
Brazilian Blowout isn’t the only product causing problems and showing up in the news lately so is henna. This ink-like substance has made waves for causing skin reactions.
What do customers say?
“I had no idea the product is unsafe,” Pam Jensen said. The 35-year-old mother of three has used Brazilian Blowout products to calm her frizzy hair. “I really liked the product but now that I know it’s unsafe I won’t be using it anymore.”
What do the maker’s of Brazilian Blowout say about this?
They claim their product is safe, and they have made that statement on their website and to several media outlets. They say they are “working with the FDA to clear up this miscommunication.”
