Quat Preservatives in Cosmetics
September 9, 2009 by Jo
The Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety (VKM) claims that the use of quartery ammonium compounds (QACs) in cosmetic formulations may be contributing to the growing problem of antibiotic resistant microorganisms.
QACs, commonly known as Quats, are used as preservatives in cosmetic formulations. The report found that the most commonly added QACs to cosmetic formulations were benzalonium chloride, stearalkonium chloride, cetrimomium chloride, cetrimonium bromide and cetylpyridin chloride.
“QACs in cosmetic products will inevitably come into very intimate contact with skin or the mucosal linings in the mouth, and it is likely that in such products they will add to the selection pressure towards more QAC resistant microorganisms among the skin and mouth flora.”
The UK cosmetics trade association has said the use of the ingredients is widespread and that the evidence was not in real life situations, although they did accept that the laboratory tests have shown some evidence.
Skinsaviour products at http://www.skinsaviour.com.au have no QAC’s in any of their skin care formulations.
Comments
Feel free to leave a comment...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!