Personal Care Products, Cancer & More

Including the "app" that let's you know what's inside most products.

We are what we eat, breathe, and put on our bodies, including our hair.

When I wrote Hormone Deception, one of the coolest studies discussed was done by our EPA (called The TEAM Studies). The EPA was trying to figure out where Americans get most of our pollution and nasty chemical exposures.

Turned out that we get most of our “chemical” exposure right inside our very own homes. Especially in the bathroom, in the morning, during and after a shower.

Much of these exposures come from the water out of ours shower. As water treatment plants can’t remove many endocrine disruptors like metabolites from birth control pills.

Also from personal care products. Many of them are hair products. And perfumes and colognes.

Knowing which chemicals are safe or not is an entire science. This science is starting to hit the proverbial fan.

For example, specific pesticides, in just the last few weeks, have been linked to renal damage and/or Parkinson’s Disease. However, this science was rearing its head when I wrote about many of these pesticide/health issue connections in Hormone Deception. So, actually, these chemicals linked to diseases, have been known for a much longer time than just this year (but it’s an ongoing battle between regulatory action, money, politics, etc.).

Hair Products

This present study on hair products was made up of 33,497 U.S. women aged 35-74 participating in the Sister Study, led by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of NIH.

The goal was to identify risk factors for breast cancer and other health conditions.

The women were followed for almost 11 years and during that time 378 uterine cancer cases were diagnosed.

Uterine cancer is not a common cancer. However, women who used “hair straighteners” had a 4% higher risk (or a doubling of risk) of developing uterine cancer by the age of 70, compared to women who didn’t use these products.

The researchers found no associations with uterine cancer for other hair products that the women reported using, including hair dyes, bleach, highlights, or perms.

But keep in mind that this study was not looking at other cancers or illnesses.

Convenience often seems to come with a high price.

Benzene

Recently, high levels of benzene, a cancer-causing chemical, have been detected in various dry shampoo aerosol hair products.

This came from a report from Valisure, an independent laboratory in New Haven, Connecticut. This lab published an analysis testing 148 batches of dry shampoo products from 34 different brands.

It turned out that 70% of the products tested contained benzene.

Everyone is exposed to benzene. It’s just a question of how much.

The World Health Organization has said “there’s no safe level” of exposure to benzene in the air that you and I and children breathe.

The highest level of benzene detected was 340 parts per million in 10 seconds of spray.

By comparison, the Food and Drug Administration has set the acceptable level of benzene in a drug as two parts per million.

In Recent Months

In the past 18 months, several major consumer products companies, including Unilever, Procter & Gamble, and Johnson & Johnson, have announced at least 10 recalls of well-known aerosol hair products, due to high levels of benzene.

The affected aerosol products include some of the world’s biggest brand names including:

• Neutrogena, Aveeno, Banana Boat, and Coppertone sunscreens;

• Sure, Brut, Suave, Secret, and Old Spice deodorants;

• Dove, Nexxus, Suave, TRESemmé, and Bed Head dry shampoos, and

• Tinactin and Odor Eaters foot sprays.

Benzene is used to make plastics, detergents, dyes, and pesticides.

Breathing or otherwise absorbing benzene over time can lead to leukemia, anemia, and other blood disorders. As well as some cancers.

The moral of this story: go to the Environmental Working Group (EWG).

EWG has an app that you can use to take a pic of a product and find out what’s “really” in it. This should be used even for products sold at “health-food” or “vitamin” stores. Go to https://www.ewg.org/consumer-guides

As of today, 2,089 personal care products have been approved for the EWG VERIFIED™ mark.

Knowledge is power.

If acted upon, knowledge often means more safety. For you. Your family. Your patients.

Even though “natural” products may now be more costly, it’s less than the stress and the money needed if you get seriously ill, later down the road.

Knowledge is power.

Stay buffed.

Don’t get stressed, make a few changes at a time. Like a Berkey shower filter. Go to drlindseyberkson.com and click on my FAV Products for that link.

Dr. B.

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Reference:

Use of Straighteners and Other Hair Products and Incident Uterine Cancer. JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 2022; DOI: 10.1093/jnci/djac165

Hormone Deception McGraw-Hill 2000 Awakened Medicine Press 2016 Berkson DL.

https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-CED-PHE-EPE-19.4.2

https://www.valisure.com/valisure-newsroom/valisure-detects-benzene-in-dry-shampoo