Procter and Gamble Voluntarily Recalls 32 Aerosol Hair Products Due to Cancer-Causing Chemical
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And now let's talk about cancer-causing recalls.
Six days ago, Procter& Gamble issued a voluntary recall of 32 of their aerosol-based hair products.
And the reason for that recall is that benzene, which is of course a chemical linked to cancer, was detected in those particular products.
Now to be specific, Procter & Gamble, as you might very well know, owns a lot of different brands.
And so this recall, it affects several different hair products that you would find on a supermarket shelf, including brands such as Pantene, Herbal Essence, Aussie, Waterless, Secret, Hair Food, as well as Old Spice.
Now, benzene is typically either a colorless or a light yellow liquid chemical that is highly flammable.
And in humans, benzene has been shown to cause cells to not work properly, and it can lead to many different things, such as dizziness, irregular heartbeats, convulsions, or if you're exposed to it for a long period of time, it can also cause leukemia, anemia, as well as other forms of cancer.
Now, you might be wondering, how is it exactly that a product that was approved to be on store shelves and to be used on your skin wound up being produced with benzene in the bottle?
Well, here's how Procter& Gamble explained the situation in a corporate statement.
Following recent reports that indicated traces of benzene in some aerosol spray products we began a review of our total portfolio of aerosol products.
While benzene is not an ingredient in any of our products our review showed that unexpected levels of benzene came from the propellant that sprays the product out of the can.
We detected benzene in aerosol dry shampoo spray products and aerosol dry conditioner spray products.
And so, according to this statement at least, it appears that what happened was that while they did not put benzene as an ingredient in their shampoo and their conditioners in their actual formulation, it was present in the aerosol propellant, which actually sprays the stuff out of the can.
which is kind of amazing if you think about it, that you can have such a widely used and ubiquitous product that's literally available everywhere across the country, but it's unknowingly showering you with cancer-causing chemicals.
Now, the affected products are currently being removed from store shelves across the entire country, and Americans are asked to immediately stop using these products if they have them at home.
In fact, Procter & Gamble set up a reimbursement program where you can actually get your money back if you purchased any of these products previously.
Just for your convenience, I'll actually throw a link in the description box To a full list of all the products that are covered under this particular recall, it'll be down there in the description box below.
Also, it is worth noting that thus far, Procter& Gamble has reportedly not received any reports of adverse reactions to these products.
Allegedly, what happened was that they conducted these tests, they found benzene and then they issued the recall.
However, this type of recall is not necessarily an isolated incident.
In fact, so far this year, there have been a total of eight different benzene-related spray product recalls that were announced by the FDA. And one of them, I believe at least, is worth highlighting.
And that is the case of the Johnson& Johnson sunscreen recall.
What happened was that about six months ago, so back in July, Johnson& Johnson issued a recall of several of their sunscreen sprays.
The reason being, just like with Procter& Gamble, they conducted internal testing and they discovered low levels of benzene within these products.
And so they issued a recall, with many nationwide retailers taking the Johnson& Johnson sprays off the shelves.
However, not everything went smoothly, because lawsuits began to spring up across the country against both Johnson& Johnson as well as Costco, because Costco was selling these particular products.
And just last month, they settled these lawsuits, although the details have yet to be made public.
Now, we here at the Epoch Times, we reached out to Johnson& Johnson for comment on the tentative agreement in these lawsuit settlements, And here's the statement that they emailed back to us.
Now, it is true that they voluntarily issued the recall against their own products, but it is also amazing to consider the fact that an FDA-approved product like these sunscreens, because sunscreens...
Need to be FDA approved in order to be on the store shelves.
It's amazing that they can be sold across the entire nation and in some of America's largest stores, but then later be discovered to contain a cancer-causing carcinogen.
That's really rather amazing if you think about it.
If you'd actually like to read more about the details of this Johnson& Johnson sunscreen recall, I'll throw those into the description box below this video for you to check out.