LOS ANGELES, Sept. 22, - A California Superior Court judge, citing health risks of lead and arsenic in tattoo inks, has ordered two major tattoo-ink manufacturers to carry warning labels.
The preliminary injunction granted by Judge Irving Feffer also requires Huck Spaulding Enterprises of New York and Superior Tattoo Equipment of Phoenix to carry the labels in their catalogs and on their Internet sites aimed at California customers.
The warning, Judge Feffer said, must tell customers that tattoo inks and pigments contain heavy metals, including lead and arsenic, which have been "scientifically determined by the State of California to cause cancer or birth defects and other reproductive harm."
The labels must also advise pregnant women or those of childbearing age to consult with their doctors before getting a tattoo, he ruled.
A spokesman for Superior Tattoo Equipment said the company had no comment on the ruling. Officials of Huck Spaulding Enterprises did not return a call.
"The judge saw this as an important issue, and issued the injunction to move the case along," said Deborah Sivas, president of the American Environmental Safety Institute in Palo Alto, Calif.
The institute, a non-profit group interested in environmental and public health hazards, filed suit in 2004 against the two companies, as well as seven smaller manufacturers, under California's Proposition 65, which requires warnings be given to individuals before they are exposed to hazardous chemicals.
Judge Feffer's ruling is in force, Sivas said, until the case comes to trial, now set for November.
"These cases don't come to trial very often," Sivas said. "My hope is to use this to get people to reformulate (tattoo inks.)"
Sivas said some of the smaller manufacturers, not included in Judge Feffer's ruling, have already settled.
The institute decided to file suit, Sivas said, because more and more people are getting tattoos.
"The incidence of teens getting tattoos is on the rise," Sivas said. "When we looked at the numbers of people, especially teenagers, getting tattoos, it was alarming."
She cited a 2003 Harris poll that showed:
- 16% of Americans have at least one tattoo, implying as many as four million California adults have one or more.
- Younger adults have even more - 36% of adults 25 to 29 years old say they have at least one tattoo.
Also, Ms. Sivas said, reports in the academic literature show that 13% of teenagers have at least one tattoo.
Sivas said the institute alleges that tattoo inks contain lead, antimony, arsenic, beryllium, chromium, cobalt, nickel and selenium, all known to be hazardous to human health.
"Tattoo customers have a right to know about this danger - before they get their tattoo," she said.
"We do have some pretty solid scientific evidence of exposure (to heavy metals)," she said. "After all, you do inject this stuff under the skin."
Tattoo inks are governed by the federal FDA under post-marketing regulations. In other words, the agency would waits for complaints from the public before testing tattoo inks and possibly requiring changes.
For instance, the agency reported last July that inks made by a Texas company, Premier Products of Arlington, had been associated with a range of ill effects, including swelling, cracking, peeling, blistering, and scarring, as well as granulomas near the eyes and lips.
The ink maker agreed to remove the offending products from the market, an FDA official said.
ѻý reported on Sept. 13 that there is also controversy about other health effects of tattoos, including the risk of viral and bacterial infections.
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