On March 10, Bloomberg ran a story regarding a voluntary recall of La Roche-Posay Effaclar benzoyl peroxide acne treatment due to the presence of benzene, “L'Oréal Recalls Acne Treatment on Cancer-Linked Chemical,” sparking a blitz of scare headlines in publications like Fortune and Newsweek, creating a domino effect of fear and confusion on social media.

Influencers on Instagram and TikTok spread the fear in posts rife with misinformation from headlines like The Daily Mail: “'Do not use' warning issued as popular face cream is urgently recalled due to contamination with cancer-causing chemical.”

What you won’t read in the recent coverage is that L'Oréal recalled a single lot of Effaclar due to expire next month. Also, this was a retail recall, not a consumer recall, so no, Daily Mail, there was no “‘do not use’ warning” nor was the face cream “urgently recalled.”

What actually happened is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) initiated independent testing on 95 acne products containing benzoyl peroxide in response to a Citizen’s Petition sent to the agency last March by Valisure, a Connecticut-based private lab that has drawn scrutiny from scientists and the media over the years for its questionable testing methods. 

In March of last year, Valisure announced it had found that benzoyl peroxide in popular acne treatments degrades to benzene, a carcinogen linked to blood cancers. The lab submitted a citizen petition asking the FDA to recall the products, in tandem with a media outreach.

What the lab didn’t highlight in its petition or corresponding press materials is that (beyond a footnote citation on page 26 of its petition) that Valisure’s subsidiary, Blue Hill Technologies, filed a patent application in 2022 for shelf-stabilizing benzoyl peroxide in acne products. 

In other words, the lab had invented a way to reduce the risk of benzoyl peroxide degrading to benzene, but didn’t discuss it in press and podcast interviews about benzoyl peroxide degrading to benzene.

Benzene is a ubiquitous compound naturally found in crude oil and man-made as a solvent in the manufacturing process of chemicals and pharmaceuticals. Most benzene exposure is through breathing car exhaust or air polluted by forest fires and volcanoes. 

Valisure's benzoyl peroxide test results used unrealistic conditions, such as storage at high temperatures for prolonged periods of time that are unlikely in real life, said Michelle Wong, the Australia-based cosmetic chemist, science educator and author who runs Lab Muffin Beauty Science, a blog and collection of social media accounts. "While higher temperatures are used for accelerated stability testing to approximate storage at normal temperatures for longer periods, many reactions that happen at higher temperatures might not happen at lower temperatures. It's a bit like cranking up your oven to cook a recipe faster—the results aren't necessarily the same."

While L'Oréal’s La Roche-Posay was the first brand to generate headlines, products from Proactiv, Walgreens, and SLMD Skincare were also cited by the FDA, causing the brands to voluntarily recall one lot (Taro Pharmaceuticals recalled two lots of Proactiv Emergency Blemish Relief Cream Benzoyl Peroxide 5%) of potentially contaminated products, most of which are due to expire over the next few months. 

“While our Effaclar Duo Acne Spot Treatment has a long-standing history of safe and effective use, recent testing revealed minimal traces of benzene in one lot of the product,” said a company spokesperson in an email to BeautyMatter. “Although these trace levels do not pose a safety risk, we are committed to upholding the highest quality standards. Therefore, in close coordination with the FDA, we have proactively decided to remove the limited remaining units of the current formula of Effaclar Duo from retailers. This decision also enables a seamless transition to our new and improved Effaclar Duo formula, which has been in development since 2024 and will be available to consumers soon.”

The FDA’s independent tests “indicated fewer products with benzene contamination” than Valisure’s findings, with more than 90% of tested products having “undetectable or extremely low levels of benzene.” 

Even with low levels of benzene, if a consumer used a skincare product daily that contained the highest level of benzene reported, these short-term exposures would be less detrimental than being stuck in your car during a traffic jam, according to Dr. Roel Vermeulen, a professor of environmental epidemiology and exposome science and the Director of the Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences (IRAS) at Utrecht University in The Netherlands. Dr. Vermeulen studies benzene and its association with leukemia, lymphoma, and lung cancer. In the case of using a contaminated product or breathing the air around a contaminated product, “Benzene gets metabolized into several relatively short-lived (hours) metabolites and does not accumulate in the body,” Dr. Vermeulen said.

Dr. Wong has followed each of Valisure’s benzene announcements with videos and social media content trying to dispel some of the fear the lab's announcements generates, “Even if their results were correct, they present them in a very misleading way.” 

When Dr. Vermeulen was asked how consumers can avoid benzene exposure, he said that gasoline emissions are the primary source of benzene exposure but most of the focus is still on occupational settings. “The most important thing is that the highest risks [of benzene exposure] are in occupational workplaces, and I think that is basically where we still should focus our attention.” 

In other words, your customers do not need to throw out their acne wash.