EWG Skin Deep® | What is POLYVINYL ACETATE

HOW WE DETERMINE SCORES Learn more About EWG VERIFIED®

Data: Fair

Polyvinyl Acetate

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Other Concerns

Non-reproductive organ system toxicity (moderate) and Contamination concerns (high)

SYNONYMS

● ACETIC ACID ETHENYL ESTER, HOMOPOLYMER

● ACETIC ACID, ETHENYL ESTER, HOMOPOLYMER

● ACETYLATED POLYVINYL ALCOHOL

● ETHENYL ACETATE, HOMOPOLYMER

● ETHENYL ESTER HOMOPOLYMER ACETIC ACID

● HOMOPOLYMER ACETIC ACID, ETHENYL ESTER

● HOMOPOLYMER ETHENYL ACETATE

● POLY(VINYL ACETATE); VINYL ACETATE HOMOPOLYMER; VINYL ACETATE, HOMOPOLYMER; VINYL ACETATE POLYMER

● POLYVINYL ACETATE

● POLYVINYL ACETATE EMULSION

● POLYVINYL ACETATE SOLUTION

This ingredient is not currently on EWG's Skin Deep Restricted or Unacceptable Lists.

Polyvinyl Acetate is a homopolymer of Vinyl Acetate (q.v.).

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

mask	3 products
mascara	2 products

Contamination concerns

Chemical
ARSENIC
HEAVY METALS

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

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

Data gaps

CONCERN	REFERENCE
2442 studies in PubMed science library may include information on the toxicity of this chemical	NLM PubMed

Multiple, additive exposure sources

CONCERN	REFERENCE
Designated as safe for general or specific, limited use in food	FDA Food Additive Status
Designated as safe for general or specific, limited use in food	FDA Everything Added to Food

Informational

CONCERN	REFERENCE
Industry or government recommendations for safe use: restrictions on concentration, impurities, product types, or manufacturing methods - any	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

EC (Environment Canada). 2008. Domestic Substances List Categorization. Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) Environmental Registry.
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.
FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) 2006. Food Additive Status List. Downloaded from http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/%7Edms/opa-appa.html, Oct 16, 2006.
FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration). 2008. EAFUS [Everything Added to Food]: A Food Additive Database. FDA Office of Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
CIR (Cosmetic Ingredient Review). 2006. CIR Compendium, containing abstracts, discussions, and conclusions of CIR cosmetic ingredient safety assessments. Washington DC.

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