EWG Skin Deep® | What is POTASSIUM ALUM

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Data: Limited

Potassium Alum

IMAGE SOURCE: PubChem

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Other Concerns

Non-reproductive organ system toxicity (moderate) and Ecotoxicology (low)

SYNONYMS

● ALUM, POTASSIUM

● ALUMINUM POTASSIUM SALT (2:1:1) DODECAHYDRATE SULFURIC ACID

● ALUMINUM POTASSIUM SULFATE

● DODECAHYDRATE SULFURIC ACID, ALUMINUM POTASSIUM SALT (2:1:1)

● EXSICCATED ALUM

● POTASSIUM ALUM

● POTASSIUM ALUMINUM SULFATE

● SULFURIC ACID, ALUMINUM POTASSIUM SALT (2:1:1), DODECAHYDRATE

Restricted

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

Potassium Alum is an inorganic salt. In the United States, Potassium Alum may be used as an active ingredient in OTC drug products. When used as an active drug ingredient, the established name for Potassium Alum is Alum, Potassium.

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

antiperspirant/deodorant	46 products
lip balm	2 products
antiperspirant/deodorant (men's)	1 products
lipstick	1 products
facial moisturizer/treatment	1 products
toners/astringents	1 products

Organ system toxicity (non-reproductive)

CONCERN	REFERENCE
Classified as expected to be toxic or harmful	Environment Canada Domestic Substance List

Cancer

CONCERN	REFERENCE
Cancer - limited evidence	Open scientific literature
One or more animal studies show tumor formation at high doses	Open scientific literature
Not likely to be carcinogenic in humans	Open scientific literature

Ecotoxicology

CONCERN	REFERENCE
Suspected to be an environmental toxin and be persistent or bioaccumulative	Environment Canada Domestic Substance List
Suspected to be an environmental toxin	Environment Canada Domestic Substance List

Multiple, additive exposure sources

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

Data gaps

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

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.
Open scientific/peer reviewed literature
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.
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.
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