the B. spot

As a mother, wife, daughter, sister, aunt, etc. – I have the same concerns for my family as anyone else reading this blog.  If I knew that ingredients in my skincare products were the cause of life threatening illnesses then I would be the first to rid my house of them to protect my loved ones and myself.  So why then as a chemist do I continue to use parabens to preserve my products and as a consumer still purchase paraben containing products for my household?  There is not enough information available to support the claim that parabens cause breast cancer.  The internet is a wonderful source of information but it can also be the source of misleading and incorrect information.

There was a paper published in the Journal of Applied Toxicology in 2004 that ignited the paraben controversy.  The basis of the article was that for the first time ever, the presence of parabens could be detected and measured in human tissue.  The authors of the study clearly pointed out that their findings did not indicate parabens as a cause of breast cancer.  Here is what they discovered:

• 19 out of 20 breast tumor tissue samples contained at least one type of paraben
• 18 out of 20 samples were shown to contain methylparaben

I can see how people would read that and instantly jump to conclusions. Whenever I read a study there are certain things that I look for before I determine if it is a valid study or not. With this particular study, I immediately had more questions than answers because the study was not put together well and vital information was not gathered. Here are a few key questions that need to be answered before a conclusion can be drawn from this study.

There was no comparison to healthy tissue- no control samples.  Why is this important?

• With this information we can see if parabens are present in healthy breast tissue and determine if there is a correlation between the level of parabens, type of parabens and tumor risk.

The tissue donors were not interviewed therefore there is no information about the donors.  What is the significance of having that information?

• We don’t know the genetic history of the donors- was there a history of breast cancer in the family?
• We don’t know how they were exposed to parabens-were they taking any medications that were preserved with parabens?  Did they consume parabens in their daily diet?  What types of personal care products did they use regularly?  What were the preservative systems used in those products?

I’m not trying to convince anyone to fall in love with parabens.  My goal is to get you to ask certain questions whenever you read an article accusing ingredients of posing serious health risks.  I want you to be able to make a well informed decision by asking critical questions- basically, thinking like a chemist!