EWG Skin Deep® | What is WHITE PETROLATUM

HOW WE DETERMINE SCORES Learn more About EWG VERIFIED™

Data: Fair

White Petrolatum

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.

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Other Concerns

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

SYNONYMS

WHITE PETROLATUM

Restricted

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

Petrolatum is a semisolid mixture of hydrocarbons obtained from petroleum. In the UnitedStates, Petrolatum may be used as an active ingredient in OTC drug products. When used as an activedrug ingredient, the established name is White Petrolatum.

Common concerns

See how this product scores for common concerns.

LOW

Cancer
LOW

Allergies & Immunotoxicity
LOW

Developmental and Reproductive Toxicity
MODERATE

Use Restrictions

Ingredient concerns

CONCERNS
DATA SOURCES

Products with this Ingredient

lip balm	20 products
lip balm with SPF	11 products
moisturizer	7 products
diaper cream	4 products
baby lotion	3 products
daily use with SPF	1 products
hair treatment/serum	1 products
serums & essences	1 products
conditioner	1 products
foot moisturizer	1 products

Contamination concerns

Chemical
PAHS

Organ system toxicity (non-reproductive)

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

Use restrictions

CONCERN	REFERENCE
Restricted in cosmetics (recommendations or requirements) - use, concentration, or manufacturing restrictions - any	CosIng

Multiple, additive exposure sources

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

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

Data gaps

CONCERN	REFERENCE
1593 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.
European Commission. 2013. Cosing, the European Commission database with information on cosmetic substances and ingredients. Accessed on March 1, 2013 at http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/cosmetics/cosing/ .
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.
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