Hair dyes 'could pose health risk'
Updated on 29 March 2007
Many chemicals currently used in hair dyes could be a public health risk, experts have warned.
Scientists advising the European Commission tested 46 hair dye ingredients and found a "considerably high proportion" were "skin sensitisers" and could trigger allergies.
The findings, in a report by the EU's scientific committee on Consumer Products (SCCP), prompted a swift Commission promise to step up an existing study into hair dyes.
Consumer Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou said: "In view of the findings of this report and the increased use of hair dyes in recent years, we need an in-depth assessment of the prevalence of hair dye allergies in the population."
The SCCP ranked the skin-sensitising potency of 46 hair dye substances and found ten to be "extreme" sensitisers, thirteen were "strong" and four "moderate".
The study was part of an EU-wide investigation to establish which hair dye ingredients qualify as safe enough for inclusion on a "positive list" to be added to existing EU rules on safe cosmetics.
A Commission statement said there was an increasing need for a safe list of hair dye ingredients because of the "social and cultural" demand for hair dyeing: according to a Danish study the average age for the first hair dyeing experiment is 16.
Four years ago the same committee warned of a possible link between long-term use of permanent hair dyes and the development of bladder cancer.
The finding launched Commission negotiations with EU governments and the cosmetics industry, resulting already in tighter rules designed to reduce the potential for allergic reactions to some substances used in perfumes.
Hair dye manufacturers are already governed by EU labelling requirements to warn on packaging about potential allergenic reactions, but the labelling does not yet have to mention whether the potential is "extreme", "strong" or "moderate".
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