FAQ: Parabens and Breast Cancer
Everybody. A recent study that tested 183 adults and children in California found parabens in 70% to 100% of their urine samples -- depending on the specific paraben they were looking for.
Adults tended to have more of these chemicals in their urine than children, probably because they used about twice the number of personal care products.
The same study found that the more personal care products a person used, the higher their paraben levels. Women tend to have higher levels than men, probably because they use more.
The good news is that these chemicals are cleared from the body pretty quickly, says Claire Philippat, PhD, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of California at Davis who studies paraben exposure.
The bad news is that because they’re so widely used, we always have some in our bodies.
“Even if you eliminate them quickly, you’re continually exposed to them,” Philippat says.
Q: Are parabens harmful?
Scientists are working hard to understand this. Parabens have a chemical structure that’s similar to estrogen, and they can mimic this hormone’s activity in the body. But they aren’t particularly strong. They’re about 10,000 to 100,000 times less potent than the natural hormone, according to the CDC.
“I would definitely say when we line up all the chemicals, they don’t tend to stand out. They’re fairly weak estrogen mimics. They aren’t compounds that rise to the top of our concern level,” says Robin Dodson, ScD, a research scientist at the Silent Spring Institute.
The new study found that in the presence of growth-promoting substances that are normally in breast tissue, parabens can promote the growth of estrogen-sensitive breast tumors even in tiny amounts -- around 5 to 10 nanograms. A nanogram is a billionth of a gram. “The question is: Would humans have those kinds of concentrations in their tissues or blood?” Rudel says.
Q: Are the levels of parabens tested in the study like the levels we’re exposed to in real life?
The short answer is that we don’t know. There have only been a few studies that have ever tried to measure the chemical in blood or tissues.