the stick, the stone and the puddle

the use in cosmetic products, according to the fda, includes anything from makeup to shaving products and antiperspirants. it is however law in the states to label parabens on the ingredients list if in the product. so, theoretically one should see them (keep in mind these things have aliases, so even if they are posted they may be hidden even to a trained eye).

most literature until now regarded parabens as ‘safe’. they are rapidly absorbed, metabolized and excreted. this essentially means they enter the body pretty quick…get used up and transformed (i’m not going to go into the mechanism at this point) and then excreted (in other words it leaves the body quite quick…so less chance of accumulation in the body). however, this is based on gastrointestinal track absorption (which is very quick). the absorption of parabens into the body and their metabolic pathway differs when they are absorbed through skin and into the fatty tissue. it’s assumed that the more hydrophobic the paraben is, the more likely it is that it will accumulate in fatty tissue (essentially the bigger the R group, the more likley it is to accumulate in fatty tissue because it won’t be as soluble in water).

sensitization occured after products containing parabens awere applied to broken skin. however, one might question if it was the parabens or not. however, some recent reports have reported adverse reproductive effects due to parabens (done in animals). they are thought to active estrogen receptors, and their capability of doing so depends on the shape and size of the alkyl group attached to the ester (the size of the R on the O – oxygen – see picture above).

to fuel the controversy, overall, they are thought not to be mutagenic; yet some reports exist that state parabens can cause chromosomal aberrations. limited animal experiments showed that parabens bind to oestrogen receptors. parabens were found in breast tumor tissue samples from animals. furthermore, levels of parabens were extracted from human breast tissue (mean concentration reported from a 20 human breast tumor study was found to be 20.6 ng/g +/-4.2). the parabens found were a combination of a few different paraben compounds. they can increase growth of human breast cancer cells. there has been a theory thrown out there, that since parabens are present in cosmetics applied to the underarm and breast area, that they can influence and are associated with breast cancer; according to the canadian cancer agency website this is not the case, no direct association has been shown. males are not quite that special, experiments on male rodents showed that butylparaben can alter reproductive function in male rates (including decrease sperm count). however, based on current literature it was conclucled that it is biologically implausible that parabens can increase the risk of breast cancer and effects on male reproductive effects.

at this point, the data associating parabens to various health outcomes is limited. more is definitely needed. the precautionary principle seems to have been applied by health canada when talking about the presence of parabens in cosmetic products. they probably have had some access to some things i either haven’t found, haven’t cam across or simply haven’t had access to. at this point, this one is a bit harder to link to specific health outcomes than phthalates. parabens are widely present in our daily lives, they are quickly absorbed if ingested…and seem to be absorbed rapidly through the skin. their ability to dissolve and stay in fatty tissue is dependant on the size of the R group (essentially the longer it is, the more organic it is…the more non-polar the molecule becomes).