Statement 2: Toxic cosmetics

“Many are ignorantly injuring their health and endangering their life by using cosmetics. They are robbing the cheeks of the glow of health, and then to supply the deficiency use cosmetics. When they become heated in the dance the poison is absorbed by the pores of the skin, and is thrown into [sic] the blood. Many lives have been sacrificed by this means alone.” ^{14EGW, Health Reformer, October 1, 1871.} In support of her warning against toxic cosmetics, White again quotes a physician who describes the contemporary women’s fashion of painting the face with enamel or lacquer to give skin the appearance of “fine porcelain” The physician is quoted to say, “The seeds of death or paralysis” are “hidden in every pot and jar of those mixtures,” causing severe illness, sudden paralysis, or even death. ^15Ibid. Symptoms described here are consistent with lead poisoning from lead-based cosmetics commonly used in the day. ^{16Note a recent description of acute lead poisoning: “Neurological signs of acute poisoning typically are: paraesthesiae, pain, muscle weakness, encephalopathy (rare) with headache, convulsions, delirium, and coma.” J. M. S. Pearce, “Burton’s Line in Lead Poisoning” European Neurology 57, no. 2 (2007): 119. See also L. L. Brunton, D. Blu- menthal, I. Buxton, and K. L. Parker, eds., “Principles of Toxicology,” in Goodman and Gilman’s Manual of Pharmacology and Therapeutics (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008), 1131. Cosmetics were still causing lead poisoning in 1925, according to C. A. Joseph, Lawrence T. Fairhall, and Paul Reznikoff, “Lead Poisoning,” Medicine 4, nos. 1-2 (1925): 4-8. For a description of palsy resulting from lead poisoning, see J. J. Du Mortier, “Lead Poisoning,” Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine 2, no. 2 (December 1929): 149. Cf. Thomas Oliver, Lead Poisoning: From the Industrial, Medical, and Social Points of View (New York: Paul B. Hoeber, 1914), 113, 114; Rebecca C. Garcia and Wayne R. Snodgrass, “Lead Toxicity and Chelation Therapy,” American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy 64 (January 2007): 49; J. Nriagu, Lead and Lead Poisoning in Antiquity (New York: John Wiley, 1983), 23-26.}UEGW 182.2