What is in mascara? Does it cause your eyes to burn?

I have wondered about pedicures, manicures & eye make up as being a possible source of exposure to the 2-butoxyethanol chemical. ... some miscellaneous thoughts ...

I noticed that there was an outbreak of 'flu-like' symptoms from a CA pedicure salon. I thought, 'hmm ... the foot bath softened up the cuticle area, but what are the chemicals that are used after that?'

I believe the suggestion of a seasoned painter to his young counterpart ... "When you paint your car in my garage, be very careful. It is the eye membranes and the cuticle areas that are the strongest points of exposure to the harmful component in paint"

I was thinking about wearing eye make up again not long ago. The eye liner I could find that was liquid was made in Germany. Only wore it a couple of times because it made my eyes burn. That's a bad sign, if you think the way I do. So, I skipped it. Also, other countries can put this 2-butoxyethylene or diethylene glycol monobutly ether more strong in products than the USA might.

I would like to ask Tammy Faye Bakker Messner * ... known for her extensive use of mascara & having mascara-smudged image... whether or not she had CFS? ... or Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome. * She did come down with one of the cancers * that could go with the 2-butoxyethanol overexposure: colon cancer. (she was diagnosed with cancer and underwent surgery to have a large section of her colon removed) Jim Cherry interview

(3-27-07 Larry King interview, they commented that she was not doing well, now with a 2nd recurrence of lung cancer in 8 years)
*
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Then I heard that Jan Crouch has been cancer free for these past 2 years; however she also uses, and has for many, many years ... a lot of mascara & other eye make up. Colon cancer in her case, too and 2 lymph nodes showed signs of cancer. ... losing blood from her system & had been anemic.

A pregnant mom wanted to go to the beauty salon with 'the girls' but was told she couldn't get in the hot tub because she was 6 months pregnant ... but that a pedicure would be OK ... I tried to stop her, but no such luck. Her baby was born 5 weeks early and soon had a hemangioma (blood tumor birth defect) show up. There may be no relationship at all. In this mom's case she had used Accutane for acne as a teen (which has a butylated inert ingredient) and her husband was a gulf war vet. So those are most likely the source of some exposures to the n-butyl ethers; but the pedicure? It didn't help & I'd sure suggest skipping it, if anyone asked me.

Besides skin hemangiomas - that are visible and benign & should disappear as the baby grows up, there are others that are invisible: lymph nodes can have them or even hemangiosarcomas; the spleen and liver and pancreas can have hemangiomas. There is also such a thing as hemangiosarcoma on the skin, hemangiomas in nasal bones, on uterus and on ovaries, lungs .... spine, brain.

On related points:

We also hear about the 'bird flu' that is harmful to humans ... such as around the duck farms. Hog/swine farms, too? What do duck and hog farms use to sanitize and stop odors? It wouldn't surprise me if it was a version of the n-butyl ethers. How often do you see news articles on the outbreak of 'flu-like' symptoms where those farms are?

Once my son had some spray paint cans that were written in Chinese or something ... and I said, "If you can't read the warnings, don't use the product!" Once I got a junk e-mail in which one of the Asian countries was advertising the use of break fluid that had triple and quadruple strength concentrations of 2-butoxyethanol (Whoa, that would do anybody in) ... if they got the mist in their eyes.