Parabens, common ingredients in a lot of our daily care products, have come to play a larger part in many lists of contents. They tend to include shampoos, balsam, soaps, deodorants, cleansing gel and face- and body creams, but is also used in the industries. They are used as perservatives, corrosion inhibitors, disinfectans and pesticides among many more areas. According to the report from Naturvårdsverket in Sweden is butylparaben, that is a preservative, enhancing allergenicity and is a disturbance to the hormone levels.(1) This area is not yet evaluated completely; anyway these are legal ingredients that indeed affect us and our children every day.
Of special importance is Butylparaben, a paraben used as preservatives or antioxidants in food, cosmetic and pharmaceuticals. The exposure occurs through inhalation, which causes irritation to the respiratory area, skin or eye contact, that can cause irritation, and itchiness, or by food supply. Results from a chronic feeding study of butylparaben on mice showed caused high occurrence of amyloidosis, which affects kidneys, spleen, liver and adrenal gland. Further studies shows that dieting butylparaben has negative effects on the reproductive system of male offspring.(2)
In Sweden, Cristina Farm among other journalists of the paper Råd och Rön have done research of harmful ingredients in skin creams, a study where 24 skin cream products of the Swedish market were studied.(Råd&Rön)
Do we really know our cosmetic products and their side effects? Reports like this are a great way of learning what to buy and what to tabu. Maybe science is not up to making this a difference, maybe we need to be the source of getting our governments a clue whether to allow these or not.
List of references
(1) Svenska Naturskyddsföreningen, 2004, Oschysst styling (in Swedish),
(2) National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), 2005, Butylparaben [CAS No. 94-26-8] Review of Toxicological Literature
(3) Råd&Rön, nr. 3/2009
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