• Chemicals that build up in our tissues and breast have no place in our bodies, and certainly don’t belong in products designed to be put on our skin. It’s an infringement of our human rights that we’re being contaminated without our knowledge or consent. WEN wants a precautionary approach to these chemicals.
  
• While such a question mark hangs over the safety of parabens, we urge consumers to choose products that don’t contain them. See www.wen.org.uk/cosmetics for a list of companies that say they don’t use parabens in any of their products.



• We hope the cosmetics industry acknowledges the significance of this research in highlighting the need to remove parabens from products and to find safer alternatives now.


• Breast cancer is a complex, multi-factorial disease but what is known so far about its causes doesn’t explain why the number of cases has doubled in 20 years. The causes of 50-70% of cases remain unknown. We call on the government, industry and cancer charities to take a precautionary approach to any suspected risk factor.

Parabens are not new

• Concerns about parabens have been around for decades and some companies manage to avoid them; we also suspect other companies have quietly removed them from underarm cosmetics already. ¹



• Parabens are used in a whole range of cosmetics, including shower gels, shampoos, moisturisers and make-up as well as deodorants/antiperspirants. WEN found them in 57% of products when we did a random check for our new cosmetics briefing, Getting Lippy: Cosmetics, Toiletries and the Environment, published last month.



• Interestingly, the paraben found at the highest levels in Dr Dabre’s study, methylparaben, was also the most common one we found in the random check. We looked at the ingredients of 76 products including soaps, shower gels, deodorants and anti-perspirants, shampoos, moisturisers and make up. Methylparaben was the third most frequently occurring ingredient, found in 49% of products.



• In a quarter of the tumours, the levels of parabens found was comparable to levels found to stimulate the growth of breast cancer cells in a laboratory tests. There is a suggestion, that at cellular level, parabens may work with PCBs as mutagens to damage chromosomes³.



• The Reading study follows several studies into the oestrogenic properties of parabens or possible links between underarm cosmetics and breast cancer. The most recent was a US study published in the European Journal of Cancer Prevention, December 2003, based on a survey of 437 women with breast cancer, that suggested a link between frequency of underarm cosmetics use, shaving and age when diagnosed – the more frequent the use the younger the age at diagnosis, on average. (K McGrath, Dept of Medicine, Saint Joseph Hospital-Resurrection Health Care, Chicago, Illinois).

Other chemicals are contaminating the breast too

• Flame retardant chemicals were found last year in breast milk samples from UK women, analysed by researchers at the University of Lancaster (Olga I Kalantzi, Dept of Environmental Science, Lancaster University, 2003).



• Flame retardants were also found in 47 breast milk samples tested by researchers at the University of Texas Health Sciences Centre, published in November 2003. Concentrations of the poly-brominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) detected were reported to be the highest in the world. (Environmental Health Perspectives, 111, no 14, November 2003). The European Union will officially ban two PBDEs because of their toxicity in August 2004 (ENDS Report, Sept 2003)
  
• Triclosan, an anti-bacterial agent, was found in three out of five samples of human milk by researchers at Stockholm University, Sweden, in 2002. Triclosan can form dioxins (known cancer agents), when burnt or exposed to sunlight and is toxic to fish. Swedish hospitals stopped using it several years ago as they considered it unnecessary.

WEN’s role
WEN has highlighted potential environmental links to breast cancer for several years. We are calling for national action for the primary prevention of breast cancer through reducing exposure to potential contributors whilst research continues.

Ending the Cosmetics Cover-up is a project that provides public information about risky chemicals in cosmetics and empowers people to take action. In December 2003 WEN published Getting Lippy: cosmetics toiletries and the environment, a briefing on the issue, and launched a dedicated website at www.wen.org.uk/cosmetics.

Notes
1. Dr Dabre cites a 1971 study that reported that when methylparaben was injected under the skin of lab rats it showed evidence of carcinogenic behaviour (Mason et al). She also cites a 1995 survey that found parabens in 99% of products (not just underarm cosmetics) designed to be left on the body (Rastogi et al). This is a much higher use than WEN’s random check suggests. A quick trawl of supermarket and chemists’ shelves last week suggests they are now less prevalent in anti-perspirants/deodorants.

2. Getting Lippy: Cosmetics, Toiletries and the Environment and a list of companies that don’t use parabens or synthetic fragrances can be downloaded from www.wen.org.uk/cosmetics.

3. Ishidate et al, 1978.

4. Dr Dabre's report is available free, from the Journal of Applied Toxicology website until the end of January 2004. Click here: www.interscience.wiley.com/journal/jat