Response to: Malik and Claoué - Transport and interaction of cosmetic product material within the ocular surface: Beauty and the beastly symptoms of toxic tears

摘要

This is in reference to the recent article in Contact Lens and Anterior Eye journal - Transport and interaction of cosmetic product material within the ocular surface: Beauty and the beastly symptoms of toxic tears [ 1 ].We take the strongest issue with the claim that benzalkonium chloride (BAC) is the "most common preservative used in eye cosmetics". Whereas this material is used in eye drops where the relevant untoward effects are well known [2], it is rarely used in any cosmetic. The authors attributed to one of us BAC's frequent use [3], however no such data or claim existed in this citation. Shelf report and well-documented annual survey data reporting frequency of cosmetic preservative use in US [4-6] continue to find BAC used in the small minority of cosmetic applications (most recently, less than 0.3%). Global use is expected to be similarly infrequent.