The Wilmington morning star., 1940-02-06

. liz dOI1llIllSCIds
ton has been after the manufac.
turers Of dangerous cosmetics.
NO COSMETIC LAW
IN. EARLY DAYS
When the first food and drug act
was passed, in 1906, the cosmetics
business was a minor affair and
the law left the government power.
less to do anything about cosmet.
les.
But by 1898 it had become trag.
ically apparent that protection was
needed. The outstanding case was
that of the eyelash dyes.
Some eyelash dyes had appear.
ed contained a drug which could
and, in certain cases, did cause
blindness. Not every user of the dyes
suffered blindness, Of course.
When the dye was applied care.
fully, so that none touched the
eyeball, there might be no bad ef-
fects. Also, the sensitivity of diff.
ferent persons to the drug varied
greatly. Some might use the dye
with immunity; some might not.
These dyes became the first objec.
tive of the food and drug admins.
tration under the new law. Since
the law went into effect, the ad-
ministration has made IS seiz.
ures OF eyelash dyes, involving sew.
eral different brands. Criminal
prosecutions followed,
MOST OFFENDERS
PLEAD GUILTY
One eyelash case went to trial.
The others resulted either in pleas
Of guilty or in pleas Of nolo cor.
tendere.
Fines or suspended prison terms
were imposed, the prison terms be-.
ing suspended because these we're
the first prosecutions under a new
law.
At the moment, the administra.
ton is confident that dangerous
eyelash dyes have been driven out
of interstate commerce. 1t sus-
poets, however, that in certain
cases the offending manufacturer
may be beating the law by estab-
fishing state agencies, each of
which would distribute the product
within only one state.
The eyelash dye was not the
only type Of cosmetic against which
the administration took action. 1t
moved against a bleaching cream,
popular with colored women, which
contained an over-strong mercury
compound that could and some
times did take the skin off.
1t purged markets of lipsticks
containing poisonous m a llic
drugs. 1t took action against a GER.
tain mole-remover which contained
nitric and acetic acids. This prep.
aration undeniably removed moles
but unfortunately removed a good
part of the adjacent skin as well.
AGENTS HUNT
HARMFUL COSMETICS
Proceeding against a preparation
of this kind is not a simple job.
The agent must first find a specific
shipment of the preparation, and
must get the records by which he
can prove that it actually moved
in interstate commerce.
The shipment must be seized and
samples analysed. After that, the
administration must compile con-
vincing proof that the ingredient
complained of is actually dangerous
to the user.
Some of the tests made are a lit
tie bazarre. There was, for in
stance, the time recently when one
laboratory contained a large num-
Der of once-white mice carefully
painted in every conceivable color
from bright red and Christmas
green to glazing yellow and modest
violet.
The mice were painted because
of a section of the law which be-
came effective Jan. 1. This provides
that any food, drug or cosmetic
containing coal-tar coloring must
have government certification that
the coloring matter is harmless.
The administrations experts
have during the last few months
tested nearly 900. 900 pounds of as
sorted coal-tar colors or corol mix.
lures. In some cases a good way
to find out if such a color will be
harmless when applied externally
prospective candidate a If Tom