Carcinogenic shampoo, handwash and soap!

[jimmybro1]

I don't know if any of you seen the topic on the news last night about carcinigenic chemicals in personal care products such as shampoo, handwash and soap! 

Just a lot of stuff on the news presents in un-educated and typically inaccurate I decided to do a little research. It seems there are a few chemicals that have been shown to be carcinogenic namely: Sodium Laureth Sulfate (typically in shampoo and handwash, more of an irritant), Cocamide DEA, Carboxymethylcellulose, Formaldehyde, and Triethanolamine. 

Cocamide seems to be the most carcinogenic as it readily nitrosates to form N-nitrosodiethanolamine, a known animal carcinogen.

http://ijt.sagepub.com/content/2/5/1.abstract

http://ijt.sagepub.com/content/18/2_suppl/9.abstract

 

[Pseudonym]

BRB. Checking my shampoo...

Although I always wonder about the reports that XYZ is a carcinogen. The question is, to what degree? And even the answer to that requires followup questions. XYZ may double your chances of you growing a third arm, but if the original chance of that was infinitesimally small to start with...

[jimmybro1]

BRB. Checking my shampoo...

Although I always wonder about the reports that XYZ is a carcinogen. The question is, to what degree? And even the answer to that requires followup questions. XYZ may double your chances of you growing a third arm, but if the original chance of that was infinitesimally small to start with...

Most tests involve giving animals like mice and rabbits the active ingredients and observing the effects over time and through generations. 

Anything that causes DNA damage overtime has the potential to be a carcinogenic. 

[Andre01]

Yes there are alot of cheicals that are now in shampoos et al, but also in foods. You have to decide to what degree you want to be anal about it. Im sorry but I actually want to smell nice so I will use deo, soap, and other products. I have on the other hand decided to remove as much of the processeed foods from my diet. I actually now find that I dont need to use a lot of scented products.

[Gym rat]

I should also check the shampoo  that I use to see what is in it just be on the safe side of things

[Biggerinnz]

Just shows that we are ingesting a lot of chemicals all the time, yet the irony is we are not allowed to put certain chemicals in our own bodies because it is deemed illegal. I lived in one of the more reputable vegetable growing areas in NZ, and got to know one of the growers well. He told me there were withholding periods for sprays used on vegetables, yet a lot of growers did not stick to this. The worst vegetable in this instance is the Brussell Sprout which is very susceptiable to insect attack. Market gardeners amongst themselves in NZ refer to them as chemical bombs as they are usually sprayed a couple of days before hitting the shelves. It's an industry secret. Try telling your conservative parents about issues like this and they will trun a blind eye, yet mine and their friends are in there mid 60's, avid vegetable eaters from the supermarket all their life, and are all getting Alsymers and Parkinsons, coincidence??

[Pseudonym]

Just had a look at my old shampoo...

I've got Sodium Laureth Sulfate - tick. I don't have Cocamide DEA - but I've got Cocamide MEA instead, whatever that means. There's a whole lot of other unpronouncable substances of course, but who knows whether they're good or not?

I've now switched to a shampoo that claims it's organic, with none of these nasties. It still has plenty of unpronouncable ingredients, but then it reassures you that it's all-natural by adding in brackets "from palm kernel oil" (and doesn't that have its own set of problems, like killing orangutans?!)

[Leeroid]

Lol at relating vegetable consumption to age related degenerative diseases like Alzheimers and Parkinsons. Do they all wipe their arse with toilet paper too? Maybe they're absorbing chemicals rectally.

[Pseudonym]

You don't think eating sprays could have health problems, Leeroid?

[Leeroid]

I do but to blame the consumption of vegetables that may or may not be sprayed as the primary cause of these ilnesses seems a bit more than foolish to me when rhere are plenty of people that don't eat vegetables as much that are just as likely to develop these illnesses

[Pseudonym]

Absolutely agree that there's a whole lot of what-ifs and assumptions in concluding that pesticides cause Alzheimers and Parkinsons. But if you're a health researcher looking for a project, that seems like a good place to start!

The trouble is, I think it would be virtually impossible to test.

First you'd need to establish that people who ate veges had a higher incidence of these illnesses - which means you'd need to find a control group of people who didn't eat veges, but had the same liftestyles in every other aspect.

Alternatively, I guess you could do animal trials... But even if you simulate the chemical doses of sprayed veges, an animal still only gives an indication, not a conclusive result. And can you even test for Alzheimers in a cat?

[Leeroid]

Absolutely agree that there's a whole lot of what-ifs and assumptions in concluding that pesticides cause Alzheimers and Parkinsons. But if you're a health researcher looking for a project, that seems like a good place to start!

The trouble is, I think it would be virtually impossible to test.

First you'd need to establish that people who ate veges had a higher incidence of these illnesses - which means you'd need to find a control group of people who didn't eat veges, but had the same liftestyles in every other aspect.

Alternatively, I guess you could do animal trials... But even if you simulate the chemical doses of sprayed veges, an animal still only gives an indication, not a conclusive result. And can you even test for Alzheimers in a cat?

That's exactly my point

[danellaj]

Personally I avoid all chemical nasties I can. I get shampoo, conditioner, soap etc through iherb.com and check the ingriedents carefully. 

I would love to say I eat only organic, but I cant afford to, so I eat organic eggs and partner gets organic meat (i dont eat meat) Fruit and veg are carefully washed and soaked in vinager to hopefully remove some of the pesticides. 

Its not realistic to live in a bubble but I think its important to be aware of things.

[Pseudonym]

After Jimmybro started this topic, I made my next purchase of shampoo/conditioner an organic brand with none of those nasties. It smelt great, but it made my hair really dull, and it gave me wicked dandruff (which hadn't previously been a problem for me).

Seems the choice is die of cancer, or live with dandruff.

[danellaj]

I found when switching over (a long time ago) it was alomst a matter of detoxing off the chemical brands. Same thing when switching from aluminium deo, was a bit rough for a while but then my body settled down. Hair was the worst though. Luckily at the time I was blonde!

[Pseudonym]

EcoStore doesn't seem to cause cancer OR dandruff, but it's twice the price and smells like insect repellant.

[crazyfacials]

you people with head hair and your problems....just shave it off and join the dark side!

[Dinahlady]

Absolutely agree that there's a whole lot of what-ifs and assumptions in concluding that pesticides cause Alzheimers and Parkinsons. But if you're a health researcher looking for a project, that seems like a good place to start!

The trouble is, I think it would be virtually impossible to test.

First you'd need to establish that people who ate veges had a higher incidence of these illnesses - which means you'd need to find a control group of people who didn't eat veges, but had the same liftestyles in every other aspect.

Alternatively, I guess you could do animal trials... But even if you simulate the chemical doses of sprayed veges, an animal still only gives an indication, not a conclusive result. And can you even test for Alzheimers in a cat?

That's exactly my point

 

Usually veges are a protective factor against most illnesses in studies, because of the health benefits eating veggies gives - Even if they have been sprayed by pesticides... I

guess they could look at people who eat "organic" vs "non organic" and there might be a slight differece (a couple of deaths accounted for each year).There is probably studies out there like that but the evidence might not have been conclusive enough and  it would come down to the statistical analysis as there would be other confounders (e.g those who ate organic fruit and veg might be more health conscious in other ways - going to the gym, less junk etc)  and they would be self report which is always dodgy.  

Other ways would be to find a whole bunch of people affected by the disease in question (alzheimers) and then compare their intake of the thing in question (veggies) to other people who represent their age/sex/area of birth/household income and other variables and ask those controls their intake of veggies (organic, non organic, amount) in a retrospective way. This is a fairly good way of conducting a study. 

And yes there will be animals who do get alzheimers (they probably wouldnt use cats) but sheep or pigs model human disease pretty well. Large animal studies are very expensive though and ethics are hard to get. 

Probably the only people who would care enough to fund studies about this would be the organic or the pestacide companies so there would be that conflict of interest too. 

[Leeroid]

Studies show that pesticides when ingested may increase the chance of cancer over a lifetime by 0.5-1%. The ironic thing is that if they banned pesticides and made all produce organic, it would reduce yield and the price of fruit and vegetables would become ridiculously expensive. That would lead to even less fruit/vegetable consumption. And whats the number one lifestyle factor correlated with cancer? Inadequate fruit and vegetable consumption. People that don't eat their greens are nearly 50% more likely to get cancer than those who eat lots of vegetables.

Avoiding one risk for an even bigger risk.

[Dinahlady]

Studies show that pesticides when ingested may increase the chance of cancer over a lifetime by 0.5-1%. The ironic thing is that if they banned pesticides and made all produce organic, it would reduce yield and the price of fruit and vegetables would become ridiculously expensive. That would lead to even less fruit/vegetable consumption. And whats the number one lifestyle factor correlated with cancer? Inadequate fruit and vegetable consumption. People that don't eat their greens are nearly 50% more likely to get cancer than those who eat lots of vegetables.

Avoiding one risk for an even bigger risk.

ha this is the best.