SIGHTINGS



Some Anti-Wrinkle
Cosmetics Risk Mad
Cow Disease
http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=125748
11-2-99

 
LONDON (UPI) - A senior official working for the British government's special committee monitoring the impact of "mad cow" disease claims anti-aging creams containing cattle parts could have triggered the human form of the disease.
 
Dr. Hilary Pickles of the government's Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Committee was particularly concerned that people could become infected if the creams were used on broken skin, the Times of London reported Tuesday. The news report said the finding was new evidence from the overall national BSE inquiry.
 
Despite senior government scientists raising concerns over the risk to "ladies...rubbing cow brain or placenta on to their faces," no action was taken because of fears that the public might panic, the Times reported.
 
The committee reportedly felt there were other beauty products posing a risk, but those products remained in use. The other products included "exotica" anti-wrinkle cosmetics and collagen made from offal to create fuller lips.
 
According to the Times, concerns were so great that Dr. Pickles called for a complete ban on using any bovine offal in the manufacture of cosmetic products. Pickles reportedly also raised fears about the risk to cosmetic industry workers who were regularly in contact with the products.
 
But the government issued no public warning. Cosmetic companies, however, have been urged against using products from British cattle.
 
 
Copyright 1999 by United Press International All rights reserved





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