Hair-straightening products contain potentially toxic mix

Hair products used primarily by blackwomen and children contain a host of hazardous chemicals, a newstudy shows.

The findings could explain at least in part whyAfrican-American women go through puberty earlier and sufferfrom higher rates of asthma and reproductive diseases than othergroups.

"The truly scary thing about this is that women are beingexposed to these chemicals weekly and sometimes even daily,without their knowledge, because they assume a product is safesimply because it is on the shelf," epidemiologist TamarraJames-Todd said after reviewing the report in EnvironmentalResearch.

James-Todd, a professor at the Harvard T.H. ChanSchool of Public Health in Boston, supplied product informationfor the study but was not directly involved with the research.

Investigators tested 18 hair products from hot-oiltreatments to anti-frizz polishes, relaxers and conditioners looking for the presence of chemicals called endocrinedisrupters. These chemicals, which interfere with the way thebody produces hormones, have been linked to reproductivedisorders, birth defects, asthma and cancer.

Altogether, the researchers looked for 66 differentendocrine disrupters. Each of the tested hair products containedat least four and as many as 30, said lead author Jessica Helm,a research fellow at the Silent Spring Institute in Newton,Massachusetts.

Eleven products contained chemicals prohibited in theEuropean Union or flagged as a potential problem in California.The two hair products marketed to children contained the highestlevels of banned or regulated chemicals, Helm said in a phoneinterview.

The vast majority of the chemicals discovered in the hairproducts 84 per cent were not listed on the product labels.

The more natural styles come into fashion, and the moreskills black moms have in styling their children's hair innatural hairstyles, the less vulnerable our children will be tooverexposure to toxic chemicals.-Janette Robinson Flint

"We also need manufacturers to disclose what's in theproducts," said Flint, who was not involved in the study. "Weneed some regulatory body to regulate these manufacturers sothey don't let them get away with not disclosing what is intheproduct and then using toxic products."

She called the study long overdue. Researchers have knownfor years that black girls enter puberty earlier than othergirls and that black women have disproportionately higher ratesof deadly reproductive cancers, she said. Yet little priorresearch has been done.

"It's as if our lives do not matter," she said in a phoneinterview.

Helm pointed out that she and her team studied only 66chemicals, just a fraction of those in hair products. There's a"universe of other products we really don't know much about,"she said.

Prior research has shown that black women use more hairproducts than other women and suffer disproportionately fromuterine fibroids, early puberty and infertility, Helm said. Inaddition, their rates of endometrial and breast cancers are onthe rise.

The current study can't prove that the presence of endocrinedisrupting chemicals in hair products actually causes these orother problems. But the study does point to them as a potentialsource, Helm said.

She, James-Todd and Flint encouraged encouraged moreregulation of the contents of hair products targeted to blackwomen and personal-care products in general. Senators SusanCollins (R-Maine) and Dianne Feinstein (D-California) haveintroduced legislation (the Personal Care Products Safety Act)that would further empower the U.S. Food and Drug Administrationto regulate ingredients in cosmetics and personal-care products.

Flint also welcomed a fashion trend toward more naturalhairstyles for black women and children.

"The more natural styles come into fashion, and the moreskills black moms have in styling their children's hair innatural hairstyles, the less vulnerable our children will be tooverexposure to toxic chemicals and having their immune systemscompromised by having to fight these toxic chemicals," she said.