In less than two weeks, the Food and Drug Administration will blow past its self-imposed deadline to finally ban formaldehyde, a cancer-causing chemical, from hair straighteners.
The administration shows no sign of progress, despite the ban being in the works for years. That’s despite clear scientific evidence showing use of the toxic substance in hair straighteners threatens users with alarming exposure to the chemical’s harms.
In fact, Trump officials are signaling the exact opposite of concern about formaldehyde. The Environmental Protection Agency released a draft review that would nearly double the amount of formaldehyde it says is “safe” to inhale. This position abandons decades of scientific agreement linking the chemical to leukemia and other types of cancer.
The change could provide cover for the FDA to adopt weaker exposure limits to formaldehyde, allowing greater use of the chemical. In that event, some groups – including workers and customers at salons using formaldehyde hair straighteners – would face higher risk.
That’s hardly a winning formula to Make America Healthy Again, despite the administration’s claim it is working to reduce exposure to toxic chemicals in the U.S.
Taken together, the EPA’s retreat and the FDA’s ongoing delay paint a troubling picture: Federal agencies charged with protecting health are instead normalizing exposure to a chemical that scientists, doctors and public health experts have consistently warned about.
After more than a decade of these warnings, overwhelming scientific consensus, and repeated broken promises, the FDA must finally ban formaldehyde in hair-straightening treatments.
The FDA promised to issue the ban by December. The clock has almost run out.
Urgent need for action
The need to tackle risks from formaldehyde exposure remains pressing. Scientists agree carcinogens like formaldehyde pose health risks, even at very low doses.
Formaldehyde is widely used in building materials and consumer products, including hair-straightening treatments that release the chemical into the air, especially when heated.
Salon workers who use hair straighteners and smoothing treatments containing the chemical face some of the greatest risk from this exposure.
The National Toxicology Program, which identifies potentially toxic chemicals, classifies formaldehyde as a known carcinogen. Short-term exposure is associated with eye, nose and throat irritation, shortness of breath and wheezing. Formaldehyde is a potent sensitizer and is thought to increase the risk of asthma for some groups.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned that “working with formaldehyde may increase your chances of having fertility problems or a miscarriage.”
Long-term exposure increases the risk of leukemia and other types of cancer, dangers the FDA has known about since at least 2007. Yet the agency continues to delay action.
Internal FDA emails from 2016 underscore how long this issue has festered. In one message, an agency scientist wrote bluntly: “Let’s just ban the damn ingredient.”
Nearly a decade later, formaldehyde remains on the market in hair-straightening products.
Concerns over EPA risk change
The FDA’s inaction looks even more stark in light of the EPA’s recent formaldehyde rollback.
The EPA proposes redefining formaldehyde exposure safety as short-term “sensory irritation” rather than cancer risk. By doing so, the agency is proposing allowing exposures up to 0.3 parts per million, a move that downplays well-established health hazards and could weaken protections for millions of workers and consumers.
Environmental health advocates warn the shift opens the door to poor decision-making about dangerous chemicals. But chemical manufacturers have applauded it as a regulatory reset that puts industry convenience ahead of public health.
The rollback proposes overturning decades of scientific agreement that effectively recognized there is no safe level of exposure to this known carcinogen.
The EPA’s revised formaldehyde assessment was heavily influenced by former chemical industry officials who now lead the agency’s office of chemical safety programs, according to The New York Times and ProPublica.
The new approach abandons a long-standing EPA scientific principle: Even low-level exposure to known carcinogens poses risk.
States are stepping in
Where the federal government has failed to act, some states are tackling formaldehyde exposure and risks. For instance, California’s Toxic-Free Cosmetics Act banned formaldehyde in personal care products starting in January 2025.
But without federal action, workers and consumers in much of the rest of the country will remain unprotected.
The FDA’s delays also raise serious questions about its ability to implement and enforce the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act, enacted in 2022 to strengthen oversight of the cosmetics industry. The agency is already late on other critical rules, delaying fragrance allergen labeling and abandoning a rule to test talc for cancer-causing asbestos.
Every day the FDA postpones banning formaldehyde in hair-straightening products is another day people are exposed to a chemical that science has long shown to be dangerous. With the EPA weakening protections and industry pressure mounting, the FDA’s role as a public health backstop has never been more important.
The agency has had more than 10 years to act. This month must mark the end of delay, not another broken promise.
