As we near the weekend and Halloween parties and haunted houses fill our list of activties, it’s time to stock up on makeup that transforms us into vampires, cats and clowns. What is far scarier though than any haunted house or creepy costume that we may encounter this weekend though, are the ingredients that live in that makeup.
According to USA Today, the Ecology Center, an environmental group in Ann Arbor, tested 31 different types of novelty makeup that can be purchased at big-box stores and temporary Halloween stores and more than half contained cadmium. Cadmium, which is a naturally occuring metal, is unsafe at different levels depending on exposure and can be linked to lung, bone and kidney damage.
Rebecca Meuninck, the Ecology Center’s environmental health campaign director said that it’s less clear how toxic cadmium is when it is applied to human skin. But, you should be cautious until research has determined what safe levels are. “We don’t want to ruin Halloween, but we do want to get consumers the information so they can make purchasing choices,” said Meuninck.
The Ecology Center’s project, www.healthystuff.org, has recipes for homemade makeup made from ingredients such as corn syrup and cornstarch if you choose to heed their warnings and experiment with some DIY this year!
