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Data: Limited

Oleth 20

  • 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

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Other Concerns

Use restrictions (low), Irritation (skin, eyes, or lungs) (low), and Contamination concerns (high)

SYNONYMS

● OLETH-20
● PEG-20 OLEYL ETHER
● POLYETHYLENE GLYCOL 1000 OLEYL ETHER
● POLYOXYETHYLENE (20) OLEYL ETHER

Restricted

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


Oleth-20 is a polyethylene glycol ether of Oleyl Alcohol (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

Expand content Collapse content
hair styling aide33 products
styling gel/lotion24 products
styling mousse/foam20 products
shaving cream9 products
hair treatment/serum7 products
eye liner6 products
shaving cream (men's)5 products
hair spray3 products
antiperspirant/deodorant3 products
exfoliant/scrub3 products
detangler3 products
around-eye cream3 products
after shave2 products
facial cleansing wipes2 products
serums & essences2 products
conditioner2 products
hand sanitizer2 products
after sun product1 products
1 products
mask1 products
baby wipes1 products
moisturizer1 products
brow liner1 products
facial moisturizer/treatment1 products
facial cleanser1 products
antiperspirant/deodorant (men's)1 products

Contamination concerns

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Use restrictions

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

Irritation (skin, eyes, or lungs)

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

Ecotoxicology

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CONCERN REFERENCE
Suspected to be an environmental toxinEnvironment Canada Domestic Substance List

Data gaps

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CONCERN REFERENCE
Safety assessment was based on related chemicalCosmetic Ingredient Review Assessments
75 studies in PubMed science library may include information on the toxicity of this chemicalNLM PubMed

Organ system toxicity (non-reproductive)

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CONCERN REFERENCE
Classified as not expected to be potentially toxic or harmfulEnvironment Canada Domestic Substance List

Persistence and bioaccumulation

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CONCERN REFERENCE
Not suspected to be persistentEnvironment Canada Domestic Substance List
Not suspected to be bioaccumulativeEnvironment Canada Domestic Substance List
  • CIR (Cosmetic Ingredient Review). 2006. CIR Compendium, containing abstracts, discussions, and conclusions of CIR cosmetic ingredient safety assessments. Washington DC.
  • Open scientific/peer reviewed literature
  • EC (Environment Canada). 2008. Domestic Substances List Categorization. Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) Environmental Registry.
  • 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.

Score legend

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

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