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Someone please help!!
Hello all! I’ve ordered ceteareth-25 from a company suggested on this forum but my question is if 1,2 dioxane and ethylene oxide is considered a carcinogen then can you please explain to me this process and is the ceteareth-25 still considered safe to use since it contains ethylene oxide? This is from the company’s website:
(Vegetable oils are processed to fatty alcohols (mainly cetyl alcohol & stearyl alcohol) which then are ethoxylated with ethylene oxide (no. 25 indicates number of ethylene oxide residues).
Can some please explain this process ☝️because I’m a little confused.
Please help I am new to formulating and don’t totally understand some terms or processes and this is one of them. Can someone please shed some light for me. I’m trying to create a product that one day soon I can sell to the public and I don’t want to have an unsafe product and not know it. Thanks! -
3 Replies
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ceteareth-25 and all other ethoxylated emulsifiers/surfactants/whatevers are obtained by reacting the starting material with a certain number of molecules of ethylene oxide.
It is during this process that some unwanted impurities form, the main one being 1,4-dioxane (which is a 2B carcinogen - carcinogenic in animals), 1,4-dioxane is also acutely toxic.Why we find dioxane in products is related to the fact that it is not as easy to purify surfactants and emulsifiers (due to their pesky property of liking both water and lipids at the same time). So, you end product will always contain a little bit of dioxane, usually at the level of traces (part-per-million or below).
These levels are determined to be safe for a specific use of the final product, so in the case of detergents or cosmetics, the content of toxic impurities needs to be safe for repeated (daily) use.It is up to the company that produces them to guarantee that the limits established by law are respected for each batch of product and sell a safe product to formulators and producers.
So if you bought your ceteareth-25 from a reputable supplier or re-packager, you can be sure that it conforms to the legislation of the area you live in. Selling ingredients that do not conform to the use they are intended to be used for is illegal and most companies won’t risk that.
If you want to be sure about origin, always ask to know the lot and batch numbers of your ingredients and the respective certificate of analysis. Shady suppliers and re-packagers usually fail or scramble at that step. -
@Newtoformulating - you have to understand that the dose makes the poison. Just because a material was shown to be carcinogenic at high levels doesn’t mean that exposure to parts per million will cause any problems. Ethoxylated materials as used in cosmetics do not cause cancer and are safe.
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@Imosca and @Perry Thank you both for taking the time to answer my concerns. I really appreciate it! The information is very useful. I feel comfortable continuing with my formula and with using ingredients from this company. Thanks again!
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