Parabens

[crazycanuck]

I'd like to know more about parabens but prefer reliable sources for info. Oh health know it alls, please tell me more?

Why are they bad for you? Also, if they're the last ingredient in a creme, is it still ok?

I have a smidgen bit of the 3B creme left & then will start using Body Glide.

[alpinerabbit]

http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/94/20/1578
http://www.fda.gov/Cosmetics/ProductandIngredientSafety/SelectedCosmeticIngredients/ucm128042.htm

A study published in 2004 (Darbre, in the Journal of Applied Toxicology) detected parabens in breast tumors. The study also discussed this information in the context of the weak estrogen-like properties of parabens and the influence of estrogen on breast cancer. However, the study left several questions unanswered. For example, the study did not show that parabens cause cancer, or that they are harmful in any way, and the study did not look at possible paraben levels in normal tissue.

FDA is aware that estrogenic activity in the body is associated with certain forms of breast cancer. Although parabens can act similarly to estrogen, they have been shown to have much less estrogenic activity than the body’s naturally occurring estrogen. For example, a 1998 study (Routledge et al., in Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology) found that the most potent paraben tested in the study, butylparaben, showed from 10,000- to 100,000-fold less activity than naturally occurring estradiol (a form of estrogen).
(my emphasis)

I'm generally relaxed about such issues, so you don't have to believe me. Also, people argue the "FDA is corrupt anyway". If you are of that conviction, then just ignore me.

[crazycanuck]

Thanks AR! I'm not worried about Parabens. I just happen to have an Avalon organics product bottle that says Paraben free & wondered.

There are two types of parabens I see on the 3b ingredients info. Methyparaben is one of them.

[OakLeaf]

The Environmental Working Group (http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/ingredient.php?ingred06=703937) has summaries and links to peer-reviewed medical journal articles on this and thousands of other cosmetics ingredients. In addition to the positive "hits," they point out where there are data gaps (i.e., where the safety of ingredients, alone or synergistically, is unknown. I don't know how Australia's environmental regulation works, but in the USA, the default is that companies may sell anything for ingestion or skin application until someone else has proved it's dangerous, which is obviously difficult to impossible).

As you may remember, the more reading I do about what I went through last summer, the more certain I am that I'm not going down that path again. But since I now know that I'm at high risk for breast cancer, I think that it would be silly for me to have that knowledge and not take any preventive measures (as the doctors would have me do).

Obviously avoiding parabens isn't the #1 step I'm taking. Most of the major steps were things I was already doing (activity, maintaining a healthy body-fat %, avoiding meat and hormone-treated dairy products, treating my depression, avoiding second-hand smoke; I'm beyond it now, but I never took birth control pills and never intended to take HRT). There were a couple of high-risk activities in my life (drinking alcohol, eating some corn-fed dairy products, eating large amounts of un-fermented soy products) and I've drastically cut down on those. In addition to those changes, not instead of them, I've taken steps to reduce my exposure to environmental endocrine disruptors. Methylparaben and bp-A, as well as household organophosphate pesticides, are so easy to avoid that it would be silly not to, IMO. Knowing that I'm at high risk, why should I increase that risk, even a little?

[alpinerabbit]

5 years after that initial publication, the German cancer society repeats there is no evidence. A large study that controlled for other risk factors such as, diet, hormone intake, found nothing.

Maybe even stressing over preceived risk factors is worse.

[OakLeaf]

I don't know why reading labels should be perceived as "stressing."

I read the labels for any processed food I buy, and generally buy the most minimally processed foods. Why shouldn't people do the same with cosmetics? In reality, I already read the labels for irritants like some alcohols, and petroleum products. To me, reading labels isn't a bit stressful; it's kind of interesting, really.

(And FWIW, I finished the end of my tube of Chamois Butt'r - I just won't buy any more.)



ETA: in fact, the externally imposed stress and the possible health effects of that is one of the major reasons I'm not taking the doctors' route.

[crazycanuck]

This might be a dumb question but i'll ask it anways.

I bought myself some Body Glide today & looked at the back about the ingredients. Could someone tell me what the difference is between an active & an inactive ingredient? WHy does the manuf list them that way?

Just wondering..:o

[OakLeaf]

I can cite you the USA regulatory definition:


(7) Active ingredient means any component that is intended to furnish pharmacological activity or other direct effect in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, or to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or other animals. The term includes those components that may undergo chemical change in the manufacture of the drug product and be present in the drug product in a modified form intended to furnish the specified activity or effect.

(8) Inactive ingredient means any component other than an active ingredient.


21 CFR § 210.3(b)

But I have no idea how to do legal research on Australian labeling requirements. Probably the website of whatever agency you have that corresponds to the US Food and Drug Administration will have links or information?

[crazycanuck]

Thanks Oakleaf. That's all the info i need to understand! :)