Lupus And Lipstick: The Industry Responds

Introduction: Evidence links lipstick to systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). This study aims at obtaining a response from the lipstick industry. Method: A 4-item electronic and postal survey, with 2 follow-up mailings, was conducted amongst 19 major lipstick companies. Results: From the electronic survey, 100% of the companies responded with machine-generated confirmations of receipt. Human responses were obtained from 10 of the companies. The responses were characterized by refusal to participate, referrals to non-responsive contact details, and standard disclaimers. Only 1 company answered the questions directly, and 1 indirectly. Discussion and conclusion: Despite the lipstick industry's awareness of the research, there appears to be little concern over the link between lipstick and SLE. There is the need for the lipstick industry to research the link, for the medical fraternity to adjust acceptable guidelines, and for the impact of lipstick transfer, particularly to children and infants, to be researched. INTRODUCTION Since 1969 [1], there has been a suggested link between the use of lipstick and the onset of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). More recently, Wang et al indicated that “Using lipstick at least 3 days/week was significantly associated with increased risk of SLE” [2]. Studies consistently report that 80% to 90% of all SLE patients are women, half of whom first present symptoms between the age of 15 and 30 [3,4,5,6,7]. It is difficult to know the percentage of women who wear lipstick, but, in Western Countries, the figure appears to be at least 50% [2,8,9] with some estimates of 98% of women in the USA between the ages of 18 and 34 [10], and popular press estimates ranging from 70% to 90% [11,12]. Given this information, there is surely a need for a response to the work of Burry and Wang et al from lipstick manufacturers. The aim of this study was to learn the extent to which the cosmetic companies are aware of this research, and their responses to such research.