What dangerous chemicals are in tanning solution!?

[Beautician29]

Just been reading the ingredients of everything thats in my tan solution and was shocked at what i found!! Many of these products sound dangerous and have serious side effects from as little as a headache to weakening of the immune system!!

Heres just 2 found in a quick search which are in my solution which are found to be dangerous:

Imidazolidinyl Urea and DMDM Hydantoin:
These are two of the many preservatives that release formaldehyde (formaldehyde-donors). According to the Mayo Clinic, formaldehyde can irritate the respiratory system, cause skin reactions and trigger heart palpitations. Exposure to formaldehyde may cause joint pain, allergies, depression, headaches, chest pains, ear infections, chronic fatigue, dizziness and loss of sleep. It can also aggravate coughs and colds and trigger asthma. Serious side effects include weakening of the immune system and cancer. Nearly all brands of skin, body and hair care, antiperspirants and nail polish found in stores contain formaldehyde-releasing ingredients.

Propylene Glycol (PG):
A[SIZE=+1]s a 'surfactant' or wetting agent and solvent, this ingredient is actually the active component in antifreeze. There is no difference between the PG used in industry and the PG used in personal care products. It is used in industry to break down protein and cellular structure (what the skin is made of) yet is found in most forms of make-up, hair products, lotions, after-shaves, deodorants, mouthwashes and toothpastes. It is also used in food processing. Because of its ability to quickly penetrate the skin, the EPA requires workers to wear protective gloves, clothing and goggles when working with this toxic substance. The Material Safety Data Sheets warn against skin contact, as PG has systemic consequences such as brain, liver and kidney abnormalities. Consumers are not protected nor is there a warning label on products such as stick deodorants, where the concentration is greater than that in most industrial applications. [/SIZE]


Should I be worried or not?!

 

[Ruth Mills]

Imidazolidinyl Urea and DMDM Hydantoin crop up in all sorts of other places, e.g. shampoo, shower gel, etc - just like you mentioned. As for formaldehyde... if you drink diet fizzy pop with Aspartame in it... one of the metabolites of Aspartame is methanol - which gets readily oxidized in the body to formaldehyde - and then on to formic acid... likewise even "healthy" things like fruit juice will contain small amounts of methanol too, which will again be metabolised to formaldehyde and then on to formic acid.

I guess the important thing in this case is the quantity of formaldehyde involved - and how much of it is actually absorbed into the body - in the case of both spray tan solution and cosmetic/toiletry products it's probably a fairly trivial amount - and certainly way below a "toxic" dose of formaldehyde.

As for propylene glycol... here's a good article on its use in cosmetic products... Cosmetic Ingredient Dictionary: Definition: propylene glycol - and it's also worth bearing in mind that its biochemistry is very different to that of ethylene glycol - which is highly toxic if ingested on account of being subsequently metabolised to oxalic acid in the body (in fact, the antidote for ethylene glycol poisoning is actually ethanol - the alcohol in booze - as the alcohol dehydrogenase enzymes in the liver that oxidise the ethylene glycol to oxalic acid have a preference for ethanol over ethylene glycol - so the ethanol given as an antidote keeps the alcohol dehydrogenase busy breaking down the ethanol into acetaldehyde and acetic acid while the ethylene glycol has a chance to pass out of the body un-metabolised).

Here's what Wikipedia says of propylene glycol anyway... "The acute oral toxicity of propylene glycol is very low, and large quantities are required to cause perceptible health damage in humans; propylene glycol is metabolized in the human body into pyruvic acid (a normal part of the glucose-metabolism process, readily converted to energy), acetic acid (handled by ethanol-metabolism), lactic acid (a normal acid generally abundant during digestion) [9] , and propionaldehyde [10] [11].

Serious toxicity generally occurs only at plasma concentrations over 1 g/L, which requires extremely high intake over a relatively short period of time.[12] It would be nearly impossible to reach toxic levels by consuming foods or supplements, which contain at most 1 g/kg of PG. Cases of propylene glycol poisoning are usually related to either inappropriate intravenous administration or accidental ingestion of large quantities by children.[13] The potential for long-term oral toxicity is also low. In one study, rats were provided with feed containing as much as 5% PG in feed over a period of 104 weeks and they showed no apparent ill effects.[14] Because of its low chronic oral toxicity, propylene glycol was classified by the U. S. Food and Drug Administration as "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS) for use as a direct food additive.

Prolonged contact with propylene glycol is essentially non-irritating to the skin. Undiluted propylene glycol is minimally irritating to the eye, and can produce slight transient conjunctivitis (the eye recovers after the exposure is removed). Exposure to mists may cause eye irritation, as well as upper respiratory tract irritation. Inhalation of the propylene glycol vapors appears to present no significant hazard in ordinary applications. However, limited human experience indicates that inhalation of propylene glycol mists could be irritating to some individuals. Therefore inhalation exposure to mists of these materials should be avoided. Some research has suggested that propylene glycol not be used in applications where inhalation exposure or human eye contact with the spray mists of these materials is likely, such as fogs for theatrical productions or antifreeze solutions for emergency eye wash stations.[15]

Propylene glycol does not cause sensitization and it shows no evidence of being a carcinogen or of being genotoxic.[16][17]"

I personally wouldn't be worried about either in the concentrations used in spray tan solutions... I'd feel much happier with a spray tan as opposed to risking cell damage caused by UV radiation....

 

[number1kitty]

DMDM Hydantoin is a massive irritant for skin. This is why we took it out of our range of spray tan solutions and are phasing it out of all our retail with only two products awaiting its removal.

As Ruth Mentioned its Ethylene Glycol that is highly irritant and NOT Propylene Glycol.

Whilst you want to take care with what you are using on your skin then you should think ANY product is a foreign object to the skin and can cause irritation - it just depends of the levels of danger each product will impose.

DHA itself whilst being derived from a natural product can also increase your clients exposure to high levels of free radicals if they expose their skin to UV Light. Therefore SPF's Just after tanning is essential! So whilst we have come away from UV tanning that speeds up the aging process, DHA can also do the same thing.

Keeping your skin hydrated and using anti aging products on your skin help to reduce the ageing process.