EWG Skin Deep® | What is POLYACRYLIC ACID

HOW WE DETERMINE SCORES Learn more About EWG VERIFIED®

Data: Fair

Polyacrylic Acid

Products with the EWG VERIFIED mark have met the program’s impurity and use restrictions based on EWG's review of the company's data.

IMAGE SOURCE: PubChem

SEARCH PRODUCTS

FIND PRODUCTS WITH THIS INGREDIENT

Other Concerns

Use restrictions (low), Non-reproductive organ system toxicity (moderate), Irritation (skin, eyes, or lungs) (low), and Contamination concerns (high)

SYNONYMS

● 2-PROPENOIC ACID, HOMOPOLYMER

● 2PROPENOIC ACID, HOMOPOLYMER

● ACRYLIC ACID HOMOPOLYMER

● ACRYLIC ACID RESIN

● CARBOPOL 907

● CARBOXYPOLYMETHYLENE

● HOMOPOLYMER 2-PROPENOIC ACID

● POLY(ACRYLIC ACID)

● POLYACRYLIC ACID

● PROPENOIC ACID POLYMER; PROPENOIC ACID POLYMER

Restricted

Restricted: EWG VERIFIED products cannot contain this ingredient without adequate substantiation

Polyacrylic Acid is a polymer of acrylic acid.

Common concerns

See how this product scores for common concerns.

LOW

Cancer
LOW

Allergies & Immunotoxicity
LOW

Developmental and Reproductive Toxicity
LOW

Use Restrictions

Ingredient concerns

CONCERNS
DATA SOURCES

Products with this Ingredient

toothpaste	25 products
nail polish	21 products
mask	15 products
eye liner	9 products
around-eye cream	8 products
glitter	4 products
other eye makeup	4 products
hair color and bleaching	3 products
styling gel/lotion	3 products
hand sanitizer	2 products
mascara	2 products
	2 products
serums & essences	2 products
brow liner	2 products
eyelash glue	2 products
anti-aging	2 products
moisturizer	2 products
body firming lotion	1 products
hair spray	1 products
shaving cream	1 products
hand cream	1 products
facial moisturizer/treatment	1 products
body wash/cleanser	1 products

Contamination concerns

Chemical
ACRYLAMIDE

Organ system toxicity (non-reproductive)

CONCERN	REFERENCE
Classified as expected to be toxic or harmful	Environment Canada Domestic Substance List
Classified as medium human health priority	Environment Canada Domestic Substance List

Irritation (skin, eyes, or lungs)

CONCERN	REFERENCE
any irritation - weight of evidence unknown/unassessed	Open scientific literature

Use restrictions

CONCERN	REFERENCE
Determined safe for use in cosmetics, subject to concentration or use limitations - Safe for use in cosmetics with some qualifications	Cosmetic Ingredient Review Assessments

Ecotoxicology

CONCERN	REFERENCE
Not suspected to be an environmental toxin	Environment Canada Domestic Substance List

Persistence and bioaccumulation

CONCERN	REFERENCE
Not suspected to be bioaccumulative	Environment Canada Domestic Substance List

Cancer

CONCERN	REFERENCE
Limited or incomplete evidence of cancer according to safety/hazard data – government assessment cannot classify as human carcinogen due to data gaps	Int'l Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) - Carcinogens
Not likely to be carcinogenic in humans	Open scientific literature

Data gaps

CONCERN	REFERENCE
6586 studies in PubMed science library may include information on the toxicity of this chemical	NLM PubMed

EC (Environment Canada). 2008. Domestic Substances List Categorization. Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) Environmental Registry.
Open scientific/peer reviewed literature
CIR (Cosmetic Ingredient Review). 2006. CIR Compendium, containing abstracts, discussions, and conclusions of CIR cosmetic ingredient safety assessments. Washington DC.
IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer). 2008. Overall Evaluations of Carcinogenicity to Humans, as evaluated in IARC Monographs Volumes 1-99 (a total of 935 agents, mixtures and exposures).
NLM (National Library of Medicine). 2012. PubMed online scientific bibliography data. http://www.pubmed.gov.

Understanding scores

Cosmetics and personal care products are not required to be tested for safety before being allowed on the market. The Skin Deep® scoring system was designed to help the public understand whether a product is safe to use or whether it contains ingredients of concern.

Every product and ingredient in Skin Deep gets a two-part score – one for hazard and one for data availability. The safest products score well by both measures, with a low hazard rating and a fair or better data availability rating.

HOW WE DETERMINE SCORES

Hazard score

The Skin Deep ingredient hazard score, from 1 to 10, reflects known and suspected hazards linked to the ingredients. The EWG VERIFIED^® mark means a product meets EWG’s strictest criteria for transparency and health.

Data availability

The Skin Deep data availability rating reflects the number of scientific studies about the product or ingredient in the published scientific literature.

NONE LIMITED FAIR GOOD ROBUST

Low Availability

Moderate Availability

High Availability