A survey and health assessment of cosmetic products for children

common products in the retail trade. The purchases have been incidental and
therefore the database, also at this point, represents the Danish market of
cosmetic products for children quite well.
The category ”Others” covers some undefinable product types such as Body
Splash (body spray), preventive head lice shampoo or various cleansing
products for the skin (primarily for the older children – teenagers). If we have
not been able clearly to categorize the product under the other product types,
“Others” is used.
4.3.5 Marketing of the products – directly towards children
As earlier described the majority of the mapped products is marketed directly
towards children, i.e. they are for instance called something with “Kids” or
“Children”, are designed as particular (cartoon) figures, have drawings of
particular (cartoon) figures on the packaging, are on an Internet page under
“Children’s products” or are sold in shops/Internet shops which exclusively
sell things for children. This is the case for 146 of the 208 products in total.
The other 61 products consist of the products in the category “Bath
confetti/caviar/fizzle salt” and other products which quite as much appeal to
the somewhat older public (older children or adult women). The products are
included in the survey because the products also appeal to especially the
somewhat older girls because the shop assistant described for a part of the
products that the products also were sold to the target group of this project
and because some of the products also are found on the shelf together with
other cosmetic products for children.
4.3.6 Chemical substances contained in the products
Appendix A contains a number of extractions from the database regarding the
chemical substances being identified in the 208 mapped cosmetic products for
children:
• Appendix A – chapter 2 is a list of all chemical substances being found
in the mapped products. At first the list is stated after descending
frequency and thereafter the same list is stated in alphabetical order.
• Appendix A – chapter 3 is a list of all chemical substances being
identified for the individual types of products. The lists are only stated
after descending frequency and there is only stated a list of the
constituents for the most frequent types of producs, i.e.:
- Bath confetti/caviar/fizzle salt
- Balsam
- Bodylotion/cream
- Body shampoo/bath gel
- Shampoo
- Bobble bath
- Tooth paste
In total 461 different substances are found in the 208 cosmetic products for
children which are recorded in the database. Furthermore, Appendix A
(chapter 2) shows how often the different chemical substances are found and
which average ranking they have. The ranking is an indication of the relative
concentration of the constituents in the products. A low number (high
ranking) expresses that the substance is the main constituent in the product
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