Are Parabens in Makeup and Skincare Products Really Harmful?

Nowadays, when information is as freely available to anyone with access to internet, awareness about what we eat, drink, apply, and use, is at its peak. A lot is being said, written, implied, and sold in the name of chemical-free, preservative-free, SLS-free, phthalate-free, fragrance-free, and “random-chemical-name”-free products these days. While in an ideal world, it would be just amazing to have products that contain everything natural (and by natural, I mean stuff that our bodies can easily metabolize/get rid of, and do not harm us in any way), it is very difficult in real life to manufacture products that are effective, safe, all-natural, and all-synthetic-chemical-free. Let’s consider an ideal scenario when a product happens to be formulated with all natural oils, dyes, and plant-extracts (and I’m not implying that all plant extracts are safe….think cocaine, which comes from the coca plant). Despite being all natural, it would be impossible to store this ideal product for long times without adding a preservative, because no one wants a body lotion brimming with bacteria, or a fungus-laden lipstick. Parabens are the most popular preservatives, and are in use since 1930s. There has been a lot of discussion about the safety of parabens in cosmetics.

Personally, I’m not against the use of chemicals in our personal care products. I have always been of the opinion that our bodies confront more chemicals through the food we eat (all the artificial colors, flavours, etc.), drinks we consume (I’m looking at you, Coca Cola), and the air we breathe (think: pollution, cigarette smoke, chemical sprays. I’m not even considering you, weed-smokers!). So, a tiny bit of chemical that helps keep my lip balm from spoiling, or my shampoo from being a bottle-full of mold, is just fine by me. So, to see if my stand on chemical preservatives in cosmetics was backed by research, I did some reading. Here is what I found.

FDA says:

FDA believes that at the present time [2007] there is no reason for consumers to be concerned about the use of cosmetics containing parabens. However, the agency will continue to evaluate new data in this area.

Source: US FDA

Sometime back, I read some reports that linked paraben usage to breast cancer. While I am no expert on the topic, but being a pharmacist, I do understand that paraben usage alone would not be the sole reason for the development of cancer, as it is a mixture of factors that lead to a disease as genetically complicated as cancer.

A study conducted in 2004, that linked paraben usage to breast cancer, while did find that breast tumour tissues contained parabens, BUT, did not really show that it was parabens that CAUSED cancer.

Source: Journal of Applied Toxicology, 2004 Jan-Feb;24(1):5-13

This is what Cancer.org has to say about the topic:

The researchers looked only for the presence of parabens in breast cancer samples. The study did not show that parabens caused or contributed to breast cancer development in these cases – it only showed that they were there. What this meant is not yet clear.

Source: Cancer.org

While we are at it, I also explored how parabens could possibly be linked to breast cancer. It is said that parabens mimic the action of estrogen (the female hormone that governs all our feminine characteristics, such as development of breast tissue, menstrual cycle etc.) in our bodies. It is generally assumed that an excessive estrogenic activity is linked to breast cancer. However, as per this paper published in 2008:

The potency of Methylparaben was at least 1000x less when compared to natural estradiol.

Source: International Journal of Toxicololgy, 2008;27 Suppl 4:1-82

This simply means that methylparaben (commonly used in our lotions, foundations etc.) will produce an effect 1000 times weaker than our body’s own estrogen. A potency of 1000 times less than natural estrogen is generally considered too weak to cause any significant damage. Many medicines (such as those in hormone replacement therapy) contain much stronger estrogens which can also cause cancer. Come to think of it, even the milk that we drink contains hormones.

Methylparaben is just one of the types of parabens used, and others, such as ethylparaben, propylparaben, and butylparaben have even weaker estrogenic activity than methylparaben.

While my own research has been very limited (some trusted journals, FDA), but I still believe that parabens have been the most well-researched chemicals in the cosmetics market. These are much better researched and documented than some of the newer preservatives which are being used instead of parabens. It is hard for me to believe that these chemicals, which have been used as preservatives for decades, can all of a sudden be a reason for health concern. The final fact that makes my faith firmer is that the quantity of these chemicals in our everyday use products is extremely small, so it won’t do me as much harm as inhaling some passive smoke, or going to a garden where pesticides are being sprayed.

So, my conclusion is that: Yes, I will continue seeing the ingredients list on my beauty products to know what exactly goes inside them. But no, I’m never going to bother reading the ingredients list on my beauty products to see if they contain parabens. Not until some exhaustive study is done to demonstrate that parabens indeed do harm.

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