Dangers of Hair Dyes

Natural hair dyes are enjoying an upswing in popularity as the dangers of chemicals found in commercial preparations are seeping into public awareness.

How high a price are we willing to pay for beauty?

More than 75 million women color their hair regularly.

One in 12 men colors his hair regularly.

But hair coloring made it onto the Cancer Prevention Coalition's Dirty Dozen list of most harmful consumer products. Clairol's Nice and Easy permanent hair coloring, to be specific. Its stew of labeled carcinogenic (cancer-causing) ingredients include Quaternium-15, also a formaldehyde releaser; Diethanolamine; and Phenylene-Diamines.

Phenylenediamine in particular should be avoided. Using permanent and semi-permanent hair coloring regularly is strongly associated with increased risk of cancer, including Hodgkin's, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, multiple myeloma and perhaps leukemia and breast cancer. The dye para-phenylenediamine (PPED), present in nearly all hair coloring products, was shown to be carcinogenic to the breast in 1986 following oxidation with hydrogen peroxide which is exactly how the products are applied.

As a matter of fact, information from the National Cancer Institute suggests that 20 percent of all cases of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in women is due to regularly using permanent hair coloring. It is noteworthy that the lovely Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who regularly dyed her hair black, died of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Prolonged use of dark, especially black hair coloring may increase the risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and multiple myeloma.

Hair coloring products also contain Alkylphenol ethoxylates (APE's), which are found in spermicides and pesticides. They are created from and break down into alkylphenols, two of which, nonylphenol and octylphenol, are suspected hormone disruptors. Studies have discovered altered reproduction, hermaphoditism and lower survival rates among salmon and other fish in waterways contaminated with nonylphenol.

As if that weren't enough, the Harvard School of Public Health's epidemiology department discovered that women who use hair coloring five times or more annually are twice as likely to develop ovarian cancer than women who never use hair dye. Further, a study published in the International Cancer Journal found that women who use permanent hair coloring are also twice as likely to develop bladder cancer than those who do not.

And the icing on top of the toxic cake is that the risk of childhood cancer could be increased tenfold for children whose mothers use hair coloring shortly prior to conceiving or during pregnancy.

Sources:

Nation Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
Genetic Connection In Link Between Permanent Hair Dye Use And Bladder Cancer Risk

Food and Drug Administration
Heading Off Hair-Care Disasters: Use Caution With Relaxers and Dyes

Journal of the National Cancer Institute, February 2, 1994, pages 210-215; Environmental Health Perspectives, June-July 1994, volume 102, number 6-7.

American Journal of Public Health. December, 1998

Cancer Causes and Control, December 1999, pages 551-559

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