There was recent news from by the National Institutes of Health which showed that permanent hair dye and hair straightening may lead to an increased chance of breast cancer. Specifically, it states that women who regularly dye their hair had an increase chance of getting breast cancer by 9%. Moreover, in African American women there was a 60% increased chance of getting breast cancer if the women dyed their hair every 5 to 8 weeks, but white women only had a 8% risk.
Then, with women who straighten their hair every five to eight weeks were 30% more likely to develop breast cancer. However, it is interesting to note that the article stated that African American women were more likely to straighten their hair, but the risk of breast cancer between African American women and white women was the same.
However, I think it's important to look at other chemical compounds in the dye that could possibly cause the cancer. In addition, many women who dye their hair are likely to use a variety of other different beauty products including hairspray, gels, nail polish, make-ups, etc. Therefore, I think that a lot more research needs to be done in order to determine if there are any other confounding variables.
References:
Eberle, C.E., Sandler, D.P., Taylor, K.W. and White, A.J. (2019), Hair dye and chemical straightener use and breast cancer risk in a large US population of black and white women. Int. J. Cancer. doi:10.1002/ijc.32738
Permanent hair dye and straighteners may increase breast cancer risk. (2019, December 4). Retrieved from https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/permanent-hair-dye-straighteners-may-increase-breast-cancer-risk.
Being someone that has gotten their hair dyed before, I found this blog post very interesting! I was interested in if hair dyes could cause any other problems and found that it is a risk factor for many other cancers like endometrial and urinary tract as well as myelodysplasia, multiple myeloma, leukemia and preleukemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and Hodgkin’s disease (Rauscher, 2004). Because of those risks I looked into more natural ways to dye your hair that would cause less harm. Many food products are commonly used like lemon juice and coffee or tea. While these are less harmful to the body as a whole, they are still found to cause damage to the hair shaft itself (Bussemaker, 2019). While they may be harmful to your hair, overall I think they would be a way better option since you don't get the toxic effects of normal hair dye.
ReplyDeleteBussemaker, M. (2019, January 31). Hair dye: natural alternatives could prevent toxic side effects. Independent. Retrieved from https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/health-alternatives-toxic-hair-dye-ultrasound-a8726936.html
Rauscher, G. H. (2004). Hair Dye Use and Risk of Adult Acute Leukemia. American Journal of Epidemiology, 160(1), 19–25. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwh166
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ReplyDeleteKendahl,
ReplyDeleteFunny to stumble upon this post right after getting my hair dyed. Like you said, there are many confounding variables to consider when approaching this topic such as hair product, are there any chemical alterations to hair products after they undergo exposure to high levels of heat as with hair straighteners, and is exposure greater/more harmful with inhaling the chemicals or being absorbed through the scalp? I wonder how well the study was able to control for these types of confounding variables. I would imagine it to be almost impossible to control for the many years worth of hair product and straightening women are exposed to, starting at a fairly young age.
But my concern is for the ones that are exposed to these chemicals on a daily basis as opposed to every few weeks, the hairdressers. The presence of carcinogenic aromatic amines of hair dye may be a reason as to why hairdressers have such a higher risk for bladder cancer, Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and leukemia than the general population (McNamee, 2014). A study found elevated levels of toluidine, a common chemical element in hair dye, perm solutions, in the blood plasma of hairdressers and may be linked to bladder cancer (McNamee, 2014). Interestingly enough, elevated plasma levels of toluidine were also discovered in employees who worked at a particular chemical manufacturing plant, who had a higher prevalence in bladder cancer as well (McNamee, 2014).
Measures should be taken to reduce the level of harmful chemicals in these products, especially considering SO many women (and men) treat their hair with these products without thinking twice. Although they say beauty is pain, life-threatening pain is a different story.
McNamee, D. (2014, June 10). Is hair dye to blame for hairdressers' increased risk of bladder cancer? Retrieved December 6, 2019, from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/277978.php#3.
As someone who is guilty of buying too many hair and skincare products, I think you are right about the potential confounding variables. I have so many serums, lotions, and sprays with hundreds of chemical ingredients. It would be interesting to narrow down and determine which of these compounds are potentially dangerous. I read an article from the National Institute of Health about a group of chemicals called Phthalates, which are used to soften and increase the flexibility of plastic and vinyl. These phthalates are commonly found in cosmetic and personal care products and are linked to endocrine disruptions and can cause cancer (Meeker, 2009). I too think more research should be done on these products, especially because they are frequently used by many.
ReplyDeleteMeeker, J. D., Sathyanarayana, S., & Swan, S. H. (2009). Phthalates and other additives in plastics: human exposure and associated health outcomes. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 364(1526), 2097–2113. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2008.0268
There is an ongoing study, The Sister Study, that is looking at the medical history and lifestyles of almost 50,000 women between the ages of 35-75. As you mentioned, women who used permanent hair dyes or hair straighteners were at an increased risk of developing breast cancer. At first glance, it is easy to automatically assume that there is a correlation between these variables, but reading into the study some more, it appears that all women in the study were already at high risk of developing cancer because they had a sister who had breast cancer. NPR stated that it shouldn't affect the study since everyone has the same family history but only some used hair dyes and chemical straighteners (Neighmond, 2019). However, I believe this is a major confounding variable because no one's family medical history is the same. The risk of breast cancer varies depending on family history. It was found that there is an increased risk of breast cancer if there is a history of esophagus cancer, lung cancer and digestive system cancer in first-degree relatives (Zhou et al., 2014). This was most likely not accounted for in The Sister Study. Of course, chemical compounds we are using to alter our body should be heavily researched and that parameters of the research should be outlined to include all confounding variables.
ReplyDeleteNeighmond, P. (2019, December 4). Hair Dyes And Straighteners Linked To Higher Cancer Risk, Especially For Black Women. Retrieved December 7, 2019, from NPR.org website: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/12/04/784838430/hair-dye-and-straightener-use-linked-to-higher-cancer-risk-especially-for-black-
Zhou, W., Ding, Q., Pan, H., Wu, N., Liang, M., Huang, Y., … Wang, S. (2014). Risk of breast cancer and family history of other cancers in first-degree relatives in Chinese women: A case control study. BMC Cancer, 14. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2407-14-662