So-called forever chemicals “can be found in products that are long-lasting like mascara, foundation and some kinds of lipsticks.”

So-called forever chemicals “can be found in products that are long-lasting like mascara, foundation and some kinds of lipsticks.”

 To Zota, an associate professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University, each of those precedents has resulted today in what she calls the “environmental injustice of beauty”—the pressure that women of color feel to conform to Eurocentric beauty norms, which compels them to purchase cosmetics at higher rates than women of other backgrounds. That, in turn, places women of color at greater risk for the negative health effects of the potentially harmful substances in products that are largely unregulated.

Earlier this year, Zota co-authored a study that examined the use of products marketed to consumers of color and found that the risks of harm from substances such as phthalates (which have been found to harm the reproductive systems of some animals), parabens in chemical straighteners such as perms and relaxers and mercury (which can cause kidney and nervous system damage) in skin lighteners represents “a growing public health concern.” She is co-director of the community engagement core at the Columbia Center for Environmental Health and Justice in Northern Manhattan.