Stepan Chemical, who makes Cocoamide DEA sent the following letter:
“A recent news program alleged that Diethanolamine (DEA) is a carcinogen. DEA is used as a minor ingredient primarily in soaps and other rinse-off products. In 1986, the Cosmetics Ingredient Review (CIR) of the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association (CTFA) found DEA to be safe when used as directed. Since that time, the National Toxicology Program (NTP) published findings that male and female study rats showed no evidence of cancer as a result of ingesting DEA. However, a different study showed evidence in mice of liver and kidney cancer. The relevancy of these studies to humans is uncertain. According to the CTFA, “the NTP, CMA and CIR are examining new information on DEA and will develop an up-to-date assessment of its safety.” Stepan has as its objective priority the safety and welfare of its customers and will keep you advised of any changes.
Because of the controversy surrounding DEA, Bio Pac, Inc. has decided to discontinue the use of DEA containing compounds in all of our products unless the ingredient can be shown to be non-toxic to humans. Bio Pac’s policy is to use the safest, more environmentally responsible ingredients available. However, if new safety information becomes available, we will discontinue the use of any ingredient which does not meet our high standards of safety!
Special note on our labeling…
Some Bio Pac products you buy in the store may still have the DEA ingredient listed, but rather than throw away millions of labels (we get them printed up a bazillion at a time) for the one ingredient change, we decided to keep using the old label. Perhaps this is a bad idea and we have received many complaints about the “DEA” listed, but we just couldn’t justify sending all these labels to the landfill. In our next label run, all the labels will not list the ingredient DEA. In the meantime, WE DO NOT USE ANY DEA IN OUR PRODUCT LINE!