The Food and Drug Administration doesn't require safety data on ingredients used in beauty and personal-care products such as shampoos, cosmetics and hair dyes before they are put on the market, according to a report by the Environmental Working Group, the Breast Cancer Fund and other public-interest groups.

A self-policing industry committee, the Cosmetic Ingredient Review, has tested some ingredients, but the testing is voluntary and controlled by manufacturers, the report said. Neither the FDA nor the industry safety panel has evaluated 89 percent of the 10,500 ingredients used in personal-care products for safety, the report said.

An examination of ingredients listed on the labels of 7,500 such products found that a third contain one or more ingredients classified by the government as possibly cancer-causing, the report said.

The FDA estimates there are about 25,000 personal-care products on the market.

Seventy-seven products examined in the report _ primarily hair dyes and shampoos _ contain ingredients classified as known or probable human carcinogens.

Some products contain ingredients that are considered safe in part because it is assumed they will not be easily absorbed through the skin, the report said. However, more than half of the products examined also contain "penetration enhancers" -- ingredients that can increase chemical penetration through the skin and into the bloodstream, the report said.

Fifty of the products that contain penetration enhancers also contain known or suspected human carcinogens, the report said.

Few individual ingredients pose excessive risks, but most people use many products in the course of a day, so it well may be that these risks are adding up, the report said.

A survey of 2,300 people conducted in conjunction with the report found that the average adult uses 10 personal-care products each day, exposing themselves to 146 chemical ingredients. Fully a quarter of all women and 1 of every 6 men use at least 15 products daily, the report said.

"Little research is available to document the safety or health risks of low-dose repeated exposures to chemical mixtures like those in personal-care products, but the absence of data should never be mistaken for proof of safety," the report warns.

"The more we study low dose exposures, the more we understand that they can cause adverse effects ranging from the subtle and reversible to effects that are more serious and permanent," the report said.

The Cosmetic Toiletry and Fragrance Association said in a press statement that the FDA has authority to remove unsafe products from the market and that an FDA regulation "requires manufacturers to substantiate the safety of cosmetic ingredients and products before they are marketed."

"If there is inadequate safety substantiation, the label must bear a prominent warning," the association said. "This regulation is a strong deterrent to the marketing of any cosmetic that has not been adequately substantiated for safety."

However, any safety testing and reporting by manufacturers to the FDA is completely voluntary, said Jane Houlihan, vice president of the Environmental Working Group.

"The problem with this regulatory system is that industry holds all the cards," Houlihan said. "They decide what 'safe' means. They decide what tests to do. If FDA believes a product is harming human health, they have to take legal action to get it off the market and there is a very high burden of proof."

Other report findings: