Color coal-tar

Hair Coloring Regulation Issues. In the United States the classification of color additives is complex. Under the Federal Food, Dmg and Cosmetic Act, all cosmetic colors must be the subject of an approved color additive petition to the Food and Dmg Administration there is an exception for coal-tar colorants used to color hair. Based on the composition of these colorants, FDA can require a certification on each manufactured batch of colorant to assure conformance with the approved specifications. In the early 1990s FDA has required certification only for synthetically derived coal-tar type colors. Many of the approved color additives, both certified and noncertified, are restricted ia their potential use. These restrictions can be found ia the color additive regulations ia the Code of Federal Regulations at 21 CFR 73 and 74. 

In 1938 a new law, the Federal Food, Dmg, and Cosmetic Act of 1938 (18), which instituted several new and important practices, was enacted. Fkst, it clearly stated that, henceforth, the use of any uncertified coal-tar color in any food, dmg, or cosmetic shipped in interstate commerce was stricdy forbidden. This restriction appHed regardless of the inherent toxicity of the colorant. In effect, the colorants that could be used were limited, certification became mandatory, and governmental control was extended to the coloring of dmgs and cosmetics. Next, it created three categories of coal-tar colors ... 

The disputes that followed these events centered around interpretation of the 1938 act, which states that "The Secretary shall promulgate regulations providing for the listing of coal-tar colors which are harmless and suitable for use in food..." The FDA felt that harmless meant that a colorant must be safe regardless of the amount used, that is, harmless per se and on this basis deHsted the colorants in question. The food-color manufacturers argued that the FDA interpretation of the law was too strict, that a color additive need only be harmless when properly used, and that the FDA should estabHsh safe limits. They also contended that the conditions used for the new animal feeding tests were too severe. 

H. Lieber, The Use of Coal-Tar Colors in Food Products, H. Lieber Co., New York, 1904. Interesting historically. 

H. O. Calvery, Jim. J. Pharm. 114, 324—349 (1942). Coal-tar colors, their use in foods, dmgs, and cosmetics. Outdated but interesting historically. 

B. C. Hesse, Coal-Tar Colors Used in Food Products, Bureau of Chemistry, Bulletin No. 147, Feb. 10, 1912. Results of the Hesse study made at the... 

Orga.nic Colora.nts. The importance of coal-tar colorants cannot be overemphasized. The cosmetic industry, in cooperation with the FDA, has spent a great deal of time and money in efforts to estabUsh the safety of these dyes (see Colorants for food, drugs, cosmetics, and medical devices). Contamination, especially by heavy metals, and other impurities arising from the synthesis of permitted dyes are stricdy controlled. Despite this effort, the number of usable organic dyes and of pigments derived from them has been drastically curtailed by regulatory action. 

In addition to the U.S. certified coal-tar colorants, some noncertified naturally occurring plant and animal colorants, such as alkanet, annatto [1393-63-17, carotene [36-884] C qH, chlorophyll [1406-65-17, cochineal [1260-17-9] saffron [138-55-6] and henna [83-72-7], can be used in cosmetics. In the United States, however, natural food colors, such as beet extract or powder, turmeric, and saffron, are not allowed as cosmetic colorants. 

Steinkohlenteer, m. coal tar. -benzin, n. benzene benzol(e), -blase,/. coal-tar still, -essenz, /. first light oil. -farbe, /. coal-tar color, -kampher, m. naphthalene, -dl, n. coal-tar oil (leichtes, light oil schweres, heavy oil), -pech, n. coal-tar pitch, -prl-parat, n. coal-tar preparation, coal-tar prod uct-... 

To Wiley, the Food and Drug Act was his mandate to insure the country a pure and honest food supply more than it was a specific statute with specific legal requirements and limitations. Thus, although the law mentioned colors only to prohibit their addition to conceal inferiority and to ban their use, if poisonous, in confectionary, Wiley believed, as part of his overall suspicions of chemical additives, that the use of coal tar colors was a practice requiring, at the least, thorough investigation. 

Dunlap and McCabe wanted a full report from Hesse, not merely a letter, because they hoped to prepare at least an interim FID on coal-tar colors for Wilson s early approval. In May, they arranged for Hesse to appear before the Board in Washington on June 10, 1907. 

At his meeting with the Board, Hesse explained his work to date and the sorry, confused state of the small portion of the coal-tar color trade devoted to food. With the single exception of the specialty house of Kohnstamm, the industry refused to follow or guarantee their products into the food trade even as they competed with advice and guarantees in the textile trade. 

The Board was so eager to send Secretary Wilson a decision that it unanimously accepted Hesse s recommendations, except for the section on mixing, at its next meeting on June 17, 1907, and made it part of Food Inspection Decision 76, "Dyes, Chemicals, and Preservatives," which was issued over the signature of the three Board members, and the Secretaries of Agriculture, Treasury, and Commerce and Labor on June 18, 1907. In printing Hesse s recommendations, the Board explained its attitude toward the use of coal tar colors ... 

By early 1910, the bulk of Hesse s work had been completed. In June, he finally returned to the original work he had abandoned in 1907, the devising of a scheme for the detection, separation, and identification of coal-tar colors in foods. This work was also necessary as the government could not successfully prosecute a manufacturer for using a poisonous color in his products unless the dye s presence could be demonstrated. Over the next several months he completed this work with the assistance of a Bureau staff chemist. No report of this work was ever published (62). 

In January 1911, Wiley sent Hesse s manuscript on to Secretary Wilson with a recommendation that it be published. It appeared the following year as Bureau of Chemistry Bulletin //147, "Coal Tar Colors Used in Food Products." Hesse s report remained the standard work on the subject for many years it was heavily cited by a British Parliamentary committee as late as 1954 (70). 

Weyl, T. "The Coal Tar Colors with Especial Reference to Their Injurious Qualities and the Restriction of Their Use" Leffman, H. trans. Blackiston Philadelphia, 1892. 

Perkin WH. (1896) The origin of the coal-tar color industry is traced, focusing on the significant influence of Hoffman and his pupils to the development of this industry. J Chem Soc 69 596-637. 

Uses Aniline is an oily liquid used in the manufacture of dyestuffs, intermediates for dyestuffs, and manufacture of rubber accelerators and antioxidant substances. Aniline has been extensively used as an intermediate in the manufacture of plastics, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, isocyanates, and hydroquinones. Occupational exposure to aniline is extensive and as diverse as its industrial uses. Workers associated with the manufacturing of acetanalide bromide, coal tar, colors and dyes, leather, disinfectants, nitraniline, perfumes, rubber, and photographic materials become victims of adverse effects from aniline. 

As the 1900s began, the bulk of chemically synthesized colors were derived from aniline, a petroleum product that in pure form is toxic. Originally, these were dubbed coal-tar colors because the starting materials were obtained from bituminous coal. Many of these colors are still used today, although with controls that ensure safe use. 

Peacock, W. H., The Application Properties of the Certified Coal-tar Colors, Calco Tech. 

Zerr, G., and Mayer, C., Tests for Coal-tar Colors in Aniline Lakes, Philadelphia, Lippin-... 

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