Do Brazilian Blowout Products need to update their current product labeling and provide salons and product users with clearer, detailed and more truthful information about their products and how to use them safely than they are providing now?

Do Brazilian Blowout Products need to update their current product labeling and provide salons  and product users with clearer, detailed and more truthful information about their products and how to use them safely than they are providing now?

Recently, I was watching Good Morning America, and the topic of deceptive ingredients and how to properly use these hair smoothing treatments, caught my eye.  My daughter uses one of these products and has always assumed based on what her Hair Stylist  and in the information that she was given about the product, assured, that the product did not have the ingredient Formaldehyde and  that it was safe to use and no special equipment would be needed during it’s application.

Elisabeth Leamy, reported on Good Morning America ( 2-29-12)  that five months ago the federal government put out a hazard alert about the hair smoothing product "Brazilian Blowout", warning that it contained liquid formaldehyde which can turn into formaldehyde gas when heated.  She went on to say that they had visited 16 salons and every salon told them that they had no safety concerns. Twelve of the salons said the product contains very little formaldehyde and four were not aware that it had any. All the salons had outdated versions of the product’s literature and bottles, which said   “formaldehyde free”

Now the company’s bottles of solution carry a warning label to alert stylists to the potential formaldehyde risk and the need to perform the treatment in a well ventilated area.

What concerns me is that there many more of these hair smoothing products out there and OSHA says that they may contain formaldehyde or that can expose you to formaldehyde during use, even though they may not list formaldehyde on their labels.  They went on to state that some manufactures list synonyms for formaldehyde on their labels, and they can do  this because when formaldehyde is dissolved in water or another substance the chemical composition is slightly changed giving the chemical a new name.

Consumers and stylists need to know and understand the products they are using and the risk factors that they may be exposed to. Using these types of products could cause future health risks to both the stylist and the consumer.

I think that many of these products are using deceptive labeling, and their advertising could be misleading.  Do you agree?