Have A Toxic Halloween Everyone!!!

For years our children have been deciding for themselves what to be for Halloween. When they’re babies, we dress them up in cute little outfits and take them trick-or-treating around the neighborhood to show off their adorableness. As they get older, they grow into their interests and pine to dress up as super heroes, princesses, monsters or other characters that make their parents hunt down the perfect costume in which they can trek door to door.

Is this a death trap waiting to happen???

How about kids who don’t want to wear a costume, per se? How about the ones who want to paint their faces to get in the spirit? After a recent unofficial “study,” you’d better consider NOT purchasing any colorful face paints. State Senator Chuck Schumer recently came down on agencies like the Food and Drug Administration for not testing face paint for toxic ingredients. This, as the kids today say, is a “face-palm” moment. There’s no routine checking for lead in cosmetic products? Isn’t that something that should automatically be done before it hits shelves? What kind of ignorant world are we living in where something as simple as face paint for children can be produced in the first place using any type of metallic substance? According to the NY Daily News, lead is “banned from makeup in Canada and Europe, but is not prohibited from being sold in the United States.”

Also, after all of these years, it’s FINALLY deemed dangerous to use face paint made in China? Are we only NOW selling makeup that’s tainted with chemicals and ingredients that could….what? Make a child blind? Give them an allergic reaction? Eat away at their skin? How was the toxic discovery recently made? Not to sound callous – and I usually do – but if the U.S. hasn’t had many cases of children who suffer health consequences from the chemicals they put on their face when using those paints, where did these findings come into play?

What about other countries that willingly sell these paints – are their children having breakouts or symptoms associated with exposure to metals? If adults suffering from any dermatological ailments can attribute their sickness – years down the line – to wearing face paint when they were younger, where are the statistics? Where is there proof that China shouldn’t be making these colorful products available? I’m not saying we should throw caution to the wind and that something as simple as a Halloween costume can’t cause cancer cells to form – or that melanoma and lead poisoning isn’t a possible consequence of making your child look like a clown. Well, is that a possible consequence? No one is even telling us about the victims of lead poisoning!

Let’s get real. When you hear that something you put on your skin is made from metals like nickel, cobalt and chromium, wouldn’t you think the overall use of those chemicals should be banned from the get-go? I understand the need to use metal-based ingredients for a product that outlasts sweat, tears and oil, but at what expense?

I applaud Schumer for recognizing the scary reality that carries no reported consequences. Testing paint for chemicals is a great idea, but politicians can also tell their constituents – and parents in particular – to simply look at the ingredients in the makeup they buy for their children. If it contains any metal products, parents can chose not to buy it in the first place. There’s fake “blood” with plenty of dyes and chemicals – how do we know that applying it to your skin more than once a year won’t slowly turn your flesh into a funny pinkish hue?

However, there might be professional stage makeup sold in those seasonal Halloween stores which are purchased by adults who aren’t as vulnerable to being poisoned as children. The products are out there for sale – no matter who buys it.

I also wonder what’s the deal with other Halloween goodies? Are those vinyl masks really all that safe? Gonna buy a wig – has it been examined for ticks or bugs after it was shipped from overseas? Some of the materials are made of wool-like fabrics that might cause breakouts and allergic reactions? How do we know who’s allergic to all of these Halloween accessories?

A better system of monitoring needs to be available if there’s suddenly going to be strict guidelines on makeup that’s been on the market for decades. How can the feds “suddenly” scrutinize a product that’s probably already in our children’s bloodstream from years of being used? Until we have answers to all of these questions, officials will paint themselves in a corner while China makes hundreds in profit from those who don’t care about makeup mayhem.