www.TheCrystal.com
Posted on 01/12/2004 10:09:58 PM PST by freedom44
MILWAUKEE -- A small, very limited new study makes an important contribution to the debate over whether deodorants and antiperspirants may play a role in breast cancer.
British scientists found chemicals from them in tumors, the first proof that they can get inside the body and accumulate after being applied to the skin. The chemicals act weakly like estrogen, a hormone long tied to breast cancer risk.
But don't throw away the deodorant just yet.
Experts say the concentrations found were far lower than the amount of estrogen naturally circulating in the body, and that much more research is needed to say whether there's any connection to cancer. The chemicals also might be found in normal breast tissue, which wasn't examined in this study.
"The unresolved question is, do they actually contribute to risk?" said Michael Thun, the American Cancer Society's chief epidemiologist, who wasn't involved in the study.
"From a consumer's point of view, there's going to be a far greater risk from other sources of estrogen," such as taking hormones after menopause and being overweight, because fat tissue makes estrogen, he said. "The additional risk, if it exists, would be minuscule" from deodorant.
The study, published Monday in the Journal of Applied Toxicology, was led by Philippa Darbre at the University of Reading in England, who has done previous studies on the topic.
"This has been one of the persistent rumors or urban legends of breast cancer, and she clearly is a person who has pursued the hypothesis seriously," Thun said.
Internet-spread rumors trumped up the possibility of a link, but previous studies haven't found one, including a study of more than 1,500 women that was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute about a year ago by Seattle researchers.
Still, some studies found that women who used underarm cosmetics developed breast cancer at an earlier age than those who did not.
And concern persists that even small doses of these chemicals over a very long time might raise risk if they accumulate in tissue.
"I do believe that there is now evidence to implicate the chemical constituents of underarm cosmetics (including antiperspirant and deodorant products) in the development of breast cancer," Darbre said.
She tested 20 breast cancer samples for parabens -- chemicals widely used as preservatives in thousands of cosmetics and food products. She found them in the form that comes from products applied topically rather than consumed orally, suggesting deodorants and antiperspirants as the source rather than food.
"The finding of parabens in human tumors is important because it shows that these extraneous, weakly estrogenic chemicals can be detected in the breast and are therefore absorbed," Philip Harvey, the toxicology journal's European editor, writes in an editorial.
Unlike worries about diffused exposures to estrogenic compounds that are found in the environment, "the use of underarm cosmetics presents a special case because of the direct application to the skin," he adds, concluding that the topic warrants further research, including whether certain groups, such as adolescents or relatives of breast cancer victims, are at a different level of risk.
"It is another example of how the human body is being increasingly polluted by chemicals used in consumer products," Darbre said. "It could be a first step for the consumer to cut down or cut out on routine application of these chemicals to themselves. For example, I do not use underarm cosmetic products anymore myself, and I wonder why I ever started. My teenage daughter has never used them."
Thun said that although the risk, if any, was small for an individual using such a product, the aggregate risk to a population justifies further study.
"From a regulator's point of view, since these substances are used in a wide range of cosmetics, it's important to look further to confirm this, to look for substitutes" for parabens, he said.
Meanwhile, breast cancer expert Susan Love reminds women on her Web site that there is one time they should not use deodorants or antiperspirants: before having a mammogram.
Aluminum in such products shows up as specks on the X-rays and can resemble signs of a tumor.
Dear God, if you see fit to stick me in an elavator for 24 hrs, please don't let it be this women.
Thun said that although the risk, if any, was small.....
Is anyone else fed up with Chicken Little running our lives and pocket books????
The study, appearing this week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, examined the personal hygiene habits of 813 women with breast cancer and 793 women without the disease and found no link between cancer and body odor control cosmetics.
That's the vital comparison study. Women with and without breast cancer using the same products and getting the same assumed transdermal levels of the suspected agent and some with and without concer not using the products - but no increase in incidence from the deodorants.
Zero link - zero causation.
Zero reason to be like the French.
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