Health Officials Keep an Eye on Lead-Based Hair Products

By Tuesday morning, Howard Mielke’s telephone was ringing nonstop. News of the Xavier University toxicologist’s study on hair dyes--just published in the Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Assn.--had traveled fast.

Mielke’s bottom line: Don’t use lead-based hair coloring products.

His team tested five lead-containing hair dyes and found they had four to 10 times more lead than the government allows in household paint. Then, Mielke and one other researcher dyed their hair with the lead-containing hair dyes.

After washing their hands, they still had 26 to 79 micrograms of lead on each hand. A microgram is a millionth of a gram. (Six micrograms a day is considered the maximum a child can safely ingest; for adults, it is 30 to 60 micrograms daily.) Lead also lingered on their hair dryers and their faucets and in their hair. Running his hands through his hair gave Mielke 70 to 286 micrograms of lead on each hand. He didn’t do blood tests.

Among the dyes tested were Grecian Formula, Lady Grecian Formula, Grecian Plus, Youthhair Creme and RD Hair Coloring and Groomer. (Hair coloring packages note lead content on their labels.)

Combe Inc., manufacturer of Grecian Formula, counters: “Our products are absolutely safe.” In a clinical, published study of 53 Grecian Formula users, conducted by German researchers over a six-month period, “there were no traces of lead in the bloodstream or urine of any user,” says a Combe spokeswoman.

The Food and Drug Administration said it would look into the findings. Elsewhere on Tuesday, other public health officials were still digesting the study and deciding what advice might be given to the public based on it.

“We’re going to be watching the situation,” says Margo Derry, co-director of the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention program for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. “And we will be looking for any advisories from the U.S. Consumer Protection Agency or our state office on how this should be responded to. Any information will then be put on our information line, (800) LA-4-LEAD.”

If people are using these products “and wonder if their children might have been affected, they should ask their health care provider to do a test to see if there is lead in the children’s blood,” says Stephanie Gilmore, chief of the outreach and education section of the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Branch of the state Department of Health Services. “If children are poisoned, they very likely will not have symptoms.”

Lead exposure should be a particular concern, she adds, for pregnant women and children up to six years. “After [age] 6 years, they don’t absorb lead as easily and their organ systems and brains aren’t developing as rapidly. They don’t do the hand-to-mouth behavior as much.”

Dr. Karen Filkins, director of reproductive genetics at West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh, has studied the effects of hair coloring in the offspring of pregnant women and worries about the findings.

“I think the part that concerns me most is not just the application of the dye causing absorption through the hands, because one could wear gloves. [But] the lead lingers in the hair and when someone touches their hair they are again contaminating their hands.” If the person then prepares food, it could be contaminated.

“Probably it is a low level of exposure,” she says. “But given the fact there are [hair coloring] products that don’t contain lead it would be a very simple precaution to avoid products that contain lead, especially during pregnancy and by anyone around young children.” Filkins maintains a Pregnancy Safety Hotline, (800) 208-SAFE, to answer questions about possible teratogens.

* The Associated Press contributed to this report.