Why Organic is Better - Controversy Over Skincare Products

There is one very practical reason for a commitment to the use of natural ingredients and organic products, and that is the long history of controversy over the chemicals used in skin care products.

Perhaps the most famous debate has been over the use of parabens, which is in general use as a preservative in many of the world's cosmetic products. Scientists have debated the validity of health concerns regarding the chemical, but many have attributed its use in beauty products as increasing chances of breast cancer.

With some reports estimating that over 75% of cosmetic products contain parabens, the grounds for their use and the controversy over their effect is a vitally important one; if those negative effects can be proved then paraben use can be legitimately outlawed. That said, their inclusion in cosmetic products will always have to be subject to serious questioning whilst evidence remains inconclusive.

What, then, is the positive and negative evidence concerning the use of parabens and the increased risk of breast cancer?

The Journal of National Cancer Institute published a report in 2002, titled Antiperspirant Use and the Risk of Breast Cancer, which refuted claims of any links between cancer and paraben use:

"The rumor that antiperspirant use causes breast cancer continues to circulate the Internet. Although unfounded, there have been no published epidemiologic studies to support or refute this claim...Our results provide no indication that such a relationship exists...These findings are based on data collected from a large population-based study of rigorous design, and as such, the absence of any observed associations may help alleviate the concern of many that use of underarm antiperspirants or deodorants could alter their risk for breast cancer."

What is interesting, then, is that since the publication of the report - which the scholars claimed was one of the first in depth reports into the subject - has not reduced the circulation of what they call 'rumours' on the paraben use and cancer risk debate.

In 2004, a team of scientists including P.D. Dabre and W.R. Miller submitted an addition to the debate in The Journal of Applied Toxicology. Whilst they found evidence for potential connections, they did not deem it to be conclusive. A section of the report reads as follows:

"Parabens are used as preservatives in many thousands of cosmetic, food and pharmaceutical products to which the human population is exposed. Although recent reports of the oestrogenic properties of parabens have challenged current concepts of their toxicity in these consumer products, the question remains as to whether any of the parabens can accumulate intact in the body from the long-term, low-dose levels to which humans are exposed."

In other words, then, it is difficult for the link to be proved until scientists can establish that parabens - which are arguably exposed to the body in only small doses - can first of all accumulate successfully within the body, and secondly if the chemicals can have any negative influence.

Breast cancer and its link to parabens, as this brief exploration shows, is a troublesome field of debate. Indeed it seems that some companies are beginning to outlaw the use of parabens altogether; playing with chemical use like Pascal's wager.

Until the use of parabens can be conclusively linked to breast cancer, damage limitation is perhaps the best way forward.