TORONTO STAR

Oct. 8, 2005 
 
Danger in that skin lotion
by Cameron Smith

How great an assault can our bodies take from the vile concoctions mixed in with our food, cosmetics and garden supplies before they collapse, especially if the concoctions are added on top of bad air, pollution that delivers everything from mercury to organochlorines and nasty levels of solar radiation?

When does the cumulative impact overwhelm our immune systems?

These are questions no one can answer, but it stands to reason that immune systems have their limits. The marvel is that human bodies are so resilient.

However, the assault can be prodigious and involve a wide range of products, as a guide to toxins in home and garden products shows.

It's published by the Labour Environmental Alliance Society in Vancouver as The Cancer Smart Consumer Guide and is available for $12, including postage. Details on ordering it are available at http://www.leas.ca.

What grabbed my attention in the guide are the preservatives called parabens. There are several kinds: methyl-, ethyl-, n-propyl-, isopropyl, n-butyl- and benzylparaben.

The guide notes that a British researcher has discovered parabens in breast tumours. When I looked up the research, I found that there's controversy over how parabens get into the breast tumours, as well as whether they can be a direct cause of cancer. There's also research that shows parabens can lower testosterone levels and sperm counts in male rats.

So, I checked my shampoo, hair conditioner and lotion. Sure enough, they contained both methylparaben and propylparaben. I bought them from a health food store thinking they'd be trouble-free.

As the research on sperm and testosterone points out, "Parabens are the most commonly used preservatives in cosmetics, toiletries, pharmaceuticals and foods." ("Effects of propyl paraben on the male reproductive system," S. Oishi, Food and Chemical Toxicology, vol. 40 (2002), pages 1807-1813)

The startling thing about the study on breast tumours was that parabens were found intact in the tumours. ("Concentrations of parabens in human breast tumours," P. D. Darbre and others, Journal of Applied Toxicology, vol. 24 (2004) pages 5-13)

Lotions are designed to be absorbed by the skin. Apparently, this means the parabens, once absorbed, can travel without change around the body.

All the research papers noted that parabens act like small doses of estrogen. And estrogen has been linked to breast cancer and reproductive deformities in fetuses. Among other characteristics, they can bind to estrogen receptors. In other words, they are hormone disruptors.

That means there's no safe level of parabens if you want to prevent them from acting as hormones. Their danger as disruptors would be determined not by dosage, but by timing: by activating or contributing to cell development at an inappropriate time, or in an inappropriate way. And this can be done at incredibly low dosages.

My next step was to check the websites of the major cosmetic firms that advertise how much they care about environmental issues. The only firm I could find that had anything to say about parabens was Avalon Organics, which is not a brand I have used.

"Although there is no definitive consensus on the danger of parabens," the company's website says, "Avalon has adopted a precautionary principle approach, and has committed to removing parabens from all our formulations. ..." Good for Avalon.

The CancerSmart guide should be required reading in every home. I'm glad I read it