Release Overview
- Two new themes summarizing CoMeta content related to personal care products and vaping
- New blog content: "California legislators looking to ban the "Toxic Twenty" from cosmetics";
"Scientists, regulators, and litigators scrambling as vaping-related lung injuries mount" - Updated Litagion agent and company profiles impacted by newly published peer-reviewed science and newly gathered company information
New Content
Themes
- Personal care products. Americans spend more than $140 billion annually on personal care products – skincare, haircare, personal hygiene, make-up, fragrances, and oral hygiene products. Tens of thousands of personal care products contain hundreds of chemical substances that consumers absorb and inhale virtually every day. As with most products on the U.S. market, manufacturers need not demonstrate the safety of personal care products before marketing. This theme brings together more than 60 Litagion agents that are found in personal care products. The level of scientific concern varies considerably across these agents both in general and in the specific context of personal care product exposure.
- Vaping. Vaping – the inhalation of nicotine, cannabidiol (CBD), or tetrahydrocannabidiol (THC) via an electronic cigarette – has increased sharply in a few short years. The increase in vaping among teenagers is especially notable. A 2018 survey found that more than a third of high school seniors reported vaping in the past 12 months. Scientists are voicing an increasing level of concern about the harmful effects of vaping and state and federal regulators are acting to impose new restrictions on the sale and marketing of vaping products. This theme brings together a range of vaping-related hazards in addition to e-cigarettes themselves. These hazards include active ingredients (e.g., THC), flavorings (e.g., diacetyl), solvents (e.g., propylene glycol), and vaping byproducts (e.g., formaldehyde).
Updated Litagion agents based on newly published science
All Litagion agent profiles have been updated to reflect the most recently published peer-reviewed science. Notable scientific studies added to CoMeta since the last release include:
- Cannabidiol (CBD): A randomized controlled trial comparing inhaled cannabidiol to a placebo showed cannabidiol has cognitive effects. This was especially prominent in infrequent cannabis users.
- Dibutyl phthalate (DBP): A study analyzing men using high-dibutyl phthalate mesalamine drugs for inflammatory bowel disease found dibutyl phthalate was associated with altered thyroid hormone concentrations.
In addition, we highlight the following changes to the components of Litagion agent risk resulting from recently published peer-reviewed science:
| Litagion agent | Risk category change | Overall risk change |
| Diazinon | Projected science risk changes from Medium (yellow) to Medium-high (orange) | Change from Medium-low (light green) to Medium (yellow) |
| Dichloromethane | Projected science risk changes from Medium-low (light green) to High (red) | Change from Medium-low (light green) to Medium (yellow) |