Acne products sold in the US have been found to contain the cancer-causing chemical benzene.
High levels of benzene, a cancer-causing chemical, can form in acne treatment products containing benzoyl peroxide, according to a new report from Valisure, an independent laboratory.
The report says benzene “can form at unacceptably high levels” in both prescription and over-the-counter benzoyl peroxide products, and results from Valisure’s tests showing that some products could form more than 800 times the “conditionally restricted” US Food and Drug Administration concentration limit for benzene.
Tests involving dozens of these products suggest that when benzoyl peroxide acne treatments are stored or handled at high temperatures – such as when left in a hot car at more than 150 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 14 days – they can generate high levels of benzene, the lab announced Wednesday.
In one test, a ProActiv acne product was stored at 158 degrees Fahrenheit for nearly 17 hours.
The lab not only detected benzene inside the product, benzene gas was found in the airspace around it – which was the equivalent of air typically found in a compact car – at around 1,270 times the threshold that the US Environmental Protection Agency has for long-term inhalation exposure to benzene, according to the lab.
Other types of acne treatment products that were tested, such as those containing salicyclic acid or adapalene, did not appear to have the issue of forming high levels of benzene, according to the lab.
Benzene is one of the 20 most widely used chemicals in the United States, and people are exposed “mainly by breathing in air containing benzene,” according the American Cancer Society, which was not involved in Valisure’s report.
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