> [Pearl Shifer] called the manufacturer of this eyecream.... contains
> Vitamin A which could be toxic ... how much
> Vitamin A is there in the cream and how much is ever absorbed through
> the
> skin???

My husband the toxicologist looked over the list of ingredients
originally posted, and also identified the retinyl palmitate (Vitamin A)
as the one probably causing the concern.

Many of you will remember the anti-acne medication sold in the US under
the trade name "Retin-A", which is absolutely not to be used during
pregnancy, as it's a known teratogen (causes birth defects).  The active
ingredient in Retin-A is also retinyl palmitate, which acts to smooth
the appearance of skin (hence its choice both in an anti-acne medication
and in anti-wrinkle eyecream).  It is absorbed readily through the skin,
and is in a lot of products that reduce the appearance of wrinkles.  We
can all now check our medicine cabinets to see what other warning labels
are out there!

Any company wants to present their product as safe, and it is often a
commercial "kiss of death" for a product to have a scary warning label.
However, the eyecream folks are probably assuming that most women who
have wrinkles around their eyes are past childbearing/lactating age (not
in my case!), and so aren't that worried about the warning.  The label
may have been prompted by specific knowledge of r.p.'s effect during
lactation, or (more likely) may have been extrapolated from the
pregnancy concern.

> She did not have any information about how much Vit. A the product
> contains.
> This is strictly a CYA issue that their legal dept must have cooked
> up.

If you're interested in pursuing this, I'm sure you could track down the
company's lawyers and/or toxicologists (maybe in-house, or perhaps
contract folks since this is a small company).  Corporate types who put
warning labels on products have to tread a middle ground between reason
and caution.  Most (my husband excluded, of course!) aren't particularly
motivated by preserving the bf relationship, but are very interested in
selling their products.  This doesn't make them bad guys, it just means
they may be uninformed.

None of these ramblings should be interpreted as specific legal or
toxicological advice!

~~ Nancy Penney