Earth_Island_Journal_-_Spring_2020

EARTH ISLAND JOURNAL • SPRING 2020 5

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talking points

FINDINGS

Dye

Disparity

The beauty industry enjoys a long

leash within the US regulatory system.

Cosmetics companies can use virtu-

ally any chemicals they like, they don’t

have to provide toxicity information to

customers, and in the case of products

used in professional salons, they don’t

even have to provide ingredient lists.

These regulatory gaps may have some

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dye enthusiasts, implications that are

not borne equally by all.

New research indicates that using

permanent hair dye increases black

women’s risk of breast cancer by 47

percent. Using the dye more frequently

increases that risk even further: Black

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eight weeks have a 60 percent greater

risk of breast cancer. By comparison,

permanent hair dye use increases

breast cancer risk by 7 percent in white

women.

The study, published in the

International Journal of Cancer in

December, tracked nearly 48,

American women over eight years.

During that period, 2,794 breast cancer

diagnoses were made.

Only 4,087 of the women in the

study, however, were black. Alexandra

White, head of the Environment and

Cancer Epidemiology Group at the

National Institute of Environmental

Health Sciences and one of the report’s

authors, notes that the small number of

black women leaves some uncertainty

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“The take-home message is that

these risks are potentially important,

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factors contribute to a woman’s risk of

breast cancer,” she said in an interview

with The New York Times.

There’s at least one possible

explanation for the discrepancy

between the cancer rates in black and

white women: Previous studies have

found that cosmetic products designed

for and marketed to black women

have more endocrine disrupting

chemicals, which have been linked to a

variety of medical problems including

cancer. These can include things like

formaldehyde, parabens, and lead

compounds, which are not included

among the mere 11 chemicals banned

or curbed in cosmetics products in the

United States. (The European Union

bans closer to 1,300.)

“The current standards are

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especially bad for black women because

products marketed to them are the

most toxic,” Janet Nudelman, director

of Breast Cancer Prevention Partners’

Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, said in

an interview with The Guardian.

The researchers also found that

regular use of chemical straighteners

increases breast cancer risk by 31

percent, regardless of race. Even there,

however, black women are at greater

risk, as they are much more likely to use

such products than are white women.

The disparities don’t end there.

Whether cosmetics contribute to their

breast cancer or not, black women

diagnosed with the disease have a 40

percent higher mortality rate than

white women.

The research team says there’s not

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recommendation around permanent

hair dye and chemical straighteners, but

that avoiding them might be one more

thing women could do to reduce cancer

risk. Or here’s another thought: Rather

than place the burden on consumers,

we could put it on the $90 billion US

cosmetics industry to clean up its act,

and on the federal government to keep

Americans safe.

A new study has found that permanent hair dye use increases breast cancer risk by 47 percent

in black women compared to 7 percent in white women.