Did you know that you could be unwittingly poisoning your entire family by just buying your kids deodorant. The chemicals contained in even the most rudimentary hygiene products such as deodorant, antiperspirant, shampoos, moisturizers, toothpaste are suspect even in the best case scenario. Let’s look at just a few of the potentially harmful chemicals that can be found in these products and look at what is fact or fiction, and in most areas you’ll be forced to draw your own conclusions. For the purpose of this article I’ll be examining the chemical found in deodorants, because most of the rumors seem to be surrounding deodorants and the chemicals contained there in. Just to be fair, I have helped to start a company that produces an all natural kids deodorant which contains none of the potentially dangerous chemicals which we are going to discuss in this article. The kids deodorant we produce is extremely gentle and effective and even though our deodorant is for kids, it is effective enough for adults. Let’s move on to the potentially harmful effects of mainline deodorants.
1) First let’s take a look at parabens which have a lot of different uses in a wide variety of products and even food, the primarily use is as a preservative, antifungal and for its bactericidal effects. There is thought to be a link between using deodorants containing parabens and breast cancer. The way it was explained to me is that parabens can mimic the hormone estrogen which has been verified to play a role in breast cancer (1). When you are using a product like deodorant that is applied near or even on those areas in my opinion is quite frightening.
There have been other studies which could link reproductive problems with parabens. I have even seen so called natural products hide naturally occurring parabens in their products, and still preach of the potentially harmful effects. Let’s take a quick look at the scientific study that started this huge buzz and decide for ourselves. “Concentrations of Parabens in Human Breast Tumors” by Darbre in the Journal of Applied Toxicology (2). This was the article that set off the huge debate over whether Deodorant can cause breast cancer and whether this study proves that. What his study showed is that in low dose long term exposure levels that humans are typically exposed to parabens can accumulate intact in the body. From what I can tell, they tested 20 women’s breast tumors and found a substantial amount of live intact parabens in all of them. To my understanding the debate comes into play as to why no healthy breast tissues without tumors were tested as a control to determine whether the ones with tumors had higher levels of parabens. I’m no scientist, but from what I can tell nobody is disputing the fact that parabens can enter your body intact and accumulate and attach to fat cells not to mention all the tested tumors had parabens attached to them. Basically what they are fighting about is did the parabens actually cause the cancer and the tumors. In my opinion the study didn’t prove that it did, at the same time it didn’t prove that they didn’t. Again I repeat what his study showed is that in low dose long term exposure levels that humans are typically exposed to, parabens can accumulate intact in the body. Again, I’m no scientist but how can anything good come from that? From different scientists opinions I have read nobody of any intelligence is saying that parabens don’t cause breast cancer, they are just saying that Darbre’s study doesn’t prove it and that more research is required. Taking all of this information into consideration the FDA says “FDA believes that at the present time there is no reason for consumers to be concerned about the use of cosmetics containing parabens. However, the agency will continue to evaluate new data in this area. If FDA determines that a health hazard exists, the agency will advise the industry and the public, and will consider its legal options under the authority of the FD&C Act in protecting the health and welfare of consumers.”(3) They came to this conclusion based off of CIR’s (Cosmetic Ingredient Review) opinion on the subject. By the way CIR is an industry sponsored organization. WHAT?!!! Yea, you got that right, a company funded by cosmetic companies that use parabens in their products. By the way the CIR also says parabens are safe to use as long as they stay under a 25% content. WHAT?!!!!!!! Are you kidding me???? I’m not making this up, considering I got the info off the FDA website. To put this into perspective, typical cosmetic products contain about 1% parabens. I bet with a 25% content of parabens the product could crawl out of its container by itself! I’m sure you don’t want your or your kids deodorant to contain parabens.
2) Aluminum. There is a thought that the Aluminum contained in antiperspirants may be linked with Alzheimer’s disease. What researchers have found is that some forms of aluminum when found in the brain can cause the neurological damage associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Whether or not the aluminum found in antiperspirants cause increases in aluminum content of the brain, still needs to be determined. Aluminum is one of the most toxic substances to humans. Aluminum damages nervous systems in both infants and adults. It is linked in anemia, osteomalacia, glucose intolerance, memory deficits, and Alzheimer's, Lou Gehrig's (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), and Parkinson's diseases. They do know that aluminum is extremely toxic to the human nervous systems and should be avoided.
Humans also absorb aluminum through the skin: a 2001 study showed that aluminum was still present in blood samples 15 days after one application of aluminum to the armpit. (4)
One study has asserted that the use of aluminum based antiperspirants increases the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by 60%!!! (5)
One more interesting point of Aluminum Zirconium is that it is only used in Antiperspirants and not deodorants. This in fact is the difference between the two. The chemical compound Aluminum Zirconium actually stops the body from perspiring, and the fact of the matter is that scientists aren’t even sure how it stops the body from perspiring.
Another concern is that if your bodies natural functions are somehow blocked like perspiring for instance could this be potentially damaging? On a personal note, when I’ve used Antiperspirants in the past I noticed bumps that would form under my arms and when I switched to a truly natural deodorant I never again had that problem.
3) Propylene Glycol. I have even seen even so called natural deodorants use Propylene Glycol and even use AKA’s to disguise its such as Propanediol. To boil down this lovely ingredient, to start with, it is commonly used ingredient in antifreeze. Propylene Glycol enters the skin so quickly that the EPA has warned factory workers to avoid skin contact in order to prevent brain, liver, and kidney abnormalities. Considering that this is the main ingredient in most deodorants including so called natural deodorants this should definitely not sit well with anyone. You sure wouldn’t want it in your kids deodorant.
By Stevan Todorovic
www.jvdeodorant.com Junior Varsity Naturals (Kids Deodorant)
Sources
(1) Lipworth L. 1995 Epidermiology of breast cancer. Eur.J Cancer Prevent. 4: 7-30
(2) http://www.maxgreenalchemy.com/images/ParabenReportDarbre.pdf “Concentrations of Parabens in Human Breast Tumors” by Darbre in the Journal of Applied Toxicology
(3) http://www.foodsafety.gov/~dms/cos-para.html
(4) Flarend, R, T Bin, D Elmore, and S L. Hemb. “A Preliminary Study of the Dermal Absorption of Aluminium From Antiperspirants Using Aluminium-26.” Food and Chemical Toxicology 39 (2001): 163-168. 22 Jan. 2008
(5) Jansson, Erik T. “Aluminum Exposure and Alzheimer’s Disease.” Journal of Alzheimer\’s Disease 3 (2001): 541-549. 9 Jan. 2008 <http://iospress.metapress.com/link.asp?id=wb0qym7m9212er2t>.Also available at: http://www.deptplanetearth.com/pub/jad3jansson.html
(6) http://www.jvdeodorant.com
