Despite being named ‘allergen of the year’, this preservative is still used in skin-care products

When a preservative commonly used in skin-care products was found to be causing rashes and irritations, some manufacturers began removing it.

But one company found a whole new use for it.

Last summer, Colgate-Palmolive introduced a new mouthwash called Colgate Total Lasting White. It contained the preservative MI, short for methylisothiazolinone, which was fast becoming known as an allergy trigger.

And that’s about the last place that anyone sensitive to MI would expect to find it.

Like the Pennsylvania mother whose hands stated to look like she had “been in a fire.” It took her months to discover she was allergic to the MI in baby wipes.

But she never dreamed it might be present in a mouthwash.  Even when her throat became chronically sore and began to swell.

But then, as Dr. Bruce A. Brod noted, “It’s not a preservative that we’ve seen commonly in products that are used anywhere but on the skin.” And he should know, being president-elect of the American Contact Dermatitis Society, which in 2013 named MI its “allergen of the year.”

But that’s not all. A European committee on consumer products noted that there are “no safe concentrations” of MI for products that stay on the skin.  As a result, the group said it should only be used in limited amounts for things like soaps and shampoos that are rinsed off.

Yet, it can still be found in dozens of items like lotions, sunscreens, and moisturizers.

And now in mouthwash.

So if you should develop a strange skin rash or swelling in your throat, you might want to start checking the ingredients of any items that touch your skin regularly – or your mouthwash.

Source:

“Growing scrutiny for an allergy trigger used in personal care products” Rachel Abrams, January 23, 2015, The New York Times, nytimes.com