Skip to main content

'Pink' Flags on Skin, Hair Products

THIS WEEK we will cover reviews that may not have reached you: cancer-causing substances that can have you exposed as you have your hair done either by a hairdresser or a barber, or even from your personal use of hair dyes.

The Lyons, France-based International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) facilitated a meeting between 17 scientists from seven countries in February 2008 in order to address new studies on compounds, scientifically referred to as “aromatics,” a name given because of their pleasant scents.

Ortho-toluidine (OTD) is a biological stain used in the production of dyes and pigments. Exposure to this compound happens mainly through skin contact. So check your skin and hair coloring products if you have this in the label. Heightened risks toward developing bladder cancer continue with regular exposure to OTD. The longer the exposure, the higher the risk. IARC classified OTD as “carcinogenic to humans.”

4-Chloro-ortho-toluidine (COTD), a known metabolic byproduct of chlordimeform (insecticide), is... [Read more.] 


This article appears in SunStar Cebu newspaper on 12 January 2011.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Deadly X-Gene Mutants

A RECENT study on macrophages (i.e. defensive cells in our body that engulf threatening substances inside our body) introduced me to a lethal, genetic disease that targets the male population. This disease is called Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), named after the French neurologist Guillaume Benjamin Amand Duchenne, who described it in 1861. While it has an incidence of one in 3,500 newborn males, health experts consider this as the most common lethal disease of childhood around the world. Mutation in the male (X) chromosome [dystrophin gene, locus Xp21] causes a rapid degeneration of the muscles, leading into an eventual loss of walking ability and then death. While females do not exhibit symptoms, they can be carriers of these defective genes, especially if the father had this condition or the mother is also a carrier. Symptoms usually appear before age five; at times visible in early infancy. These symptoms involve... ( Read more .)  This article appears in Sun-Star Ce...
Post a Comment
Read more

Joy, Temperance and Repose

“I RECKON being ill as one of the great pleasures of life, provided one is not too ill and is not obliged to work till one is better,” wrote Samuel Butler in The Way of All Flesh (1903). The term “antioxidant” was originally used in the 18th century to refer to a chemical that prevents the consumption of oxygen in laboratory experiments. However, in the late 19th and early 20th century, extensive study exploded... ( Read more ) This article appeared in SunStar Cebu newspaper on 02 June 2010.
Post a Comment
Read more