Methylparabens

[Opsa]

The other night I heard a news story about methylparabens, a preservative added to lots of products, particularly cosmetics. There has been some controversy about them over the past few years. One study found traces of them in breast cancer samples. Another said that it was only a trace, may have been natural and does not prove that they cause cancer.

However, the question was brought up about the fact that methylparabens resemble estrogen (something linked to cancer) and that even though products have every low "not to worry" levels of the chemical for humans, it is water soluable and may be washing through us and into streams and tributaries where it could build up enough to damage the life cycle of some smaller and more fragile forms of wildlife!

I know that this is possibly just an imaginative worse-case scenario, but it still bothers me. Last year when I went with my daughter on a field trip to the Chesapeake Bay, we were looking forward to seeing lots of crabs and fishes and things, but did not see one. Not one. Part of the field trip was testing the water for chemicals and the test came up so awfully polluted that I vowed to take better care of what was in my laundry detergent (a leading culprit, along with lawn chemicals which I do not use). I never imagined that my moisturizer could be messing with the environment.

[Aggie]

There are LOTS of xenoestrogens messing with our bodies and our environment (as well as all the birth control estrogens we are pissing away).  Phthalates in particular scare and worry me.   

[Sibling Chatty]

Methylparabens are the most common preservatives added to multi-use vials of local anesthetics.

Doesn't THAT just make ya happy? Even before the carcinoid caused a problem with epinepherine in locals for me, I had problems because of methylparabens--thanks to an extremely strong exposure from drinking the water in New Orleans during one of our multiple "consider alternate water sources" weeks--a few decades ago.

Yep, neuroendocrine (hormonal system) cancers are on the rise...and all us "threehuggers" are just trying to hold back Free Enterprise!!

[Griffin NoName]

Someone should patent cancer then none of us could have it free of charge and no one would be daft enough to pay for it.



We had a massive deodrant scare here last year (or was it the year before). There was terrbile panic about being smelly or dead. Then the crystals and stones caught on. Now they are big business.

We have regular hair dye panics as well. I flout that one bravely or foolishly. I discovered changing my hair colour often so no one would know what I'd look like from one day to the next (day=months or in some cases years where my relatives are concerned) added joy and spice to my life. Post-chemo-baldness-hair-growth literally went to my head. I have hair. I can do what I like with it. I tell myself I am merely experimenting whether the dye ingredients can penitrate the brain-hair barrier in the name of cancer research - a service to humankind.

Anyway, as Aggie and I were discussing a while ago, I am well endowed with nasty things in the chemical line which shouldn't be there, so what the hell. Russian Roulette is a good game.

[Opsa]

Phthalates were banned from toys when my child was a baby. They were nice and chewy and little kids were putting them in their mouths all the time.

I don't care if people want to play Russian Roulette with their own fate (I used to do it all the time back when I smoked cigarettes), but I am concerned about the effects on wildlife. That Bay beach should have been crawling with little creatures and with gulls out hunting for tidbits, but it was dreadfully still. I don't like the idea that I may have ruined something's sex life with my stupid anti-aging cream (which didn't work, I aged anyway!  ).

I'm looking through our stuff and finding it even in the supposedly natural "Kiss My Face" shaving cream that my husaband uses. Luckily, it appears not to be in the shampoos we use, or in the Sun-In highlighter I use in my hair. (Oddly enough, there's not too many cheimicals in that and I don't want to know right now about the ones it does have!)

[Griffin NoName]

I'm only playing Russian Roulette as I seem to be playing it anyway whether I like it or not

[Opsa]

Understood. Didn't mean to be too