Subject: Black Hair Care Products Linked To Breast

[soulgirl]

emailed to me today, not sure if this has been circulating round the web, is there already a thread on this ?

Subject: FW: An article about Black hair products and cancer causing
suspects

VERY IMPORTANT INFO - I am not sure of the validity, but it is better
safe than sorry. Please share this information with all the women of
color that you know. . .




Subject: Black Hair Care Products Linked to Breast Cancer



Lifestyles Report...Hair Scare

by Debbie Norrell
At least two months ago WPXI contacted me to do an interview about
ingredients in hair care products used by African-Americans possibly
leading to breast cancer. I was selected because I am a 15-year breast
cancer survivor.

I agreed to do the interview. However at the end of the taping I didn't
know anything more about the study than before the cameras started
rolling.

Recently WAMO news anchor and New Pittsburgh Courier freelance writer
Allegra Battle did a story on this same subject and it was a feature on
the May 9, 5 p.m. KDKA news. But at the end of these stories we still
did not have a list of the products.

Battle gave me the list that didn't make her feature during a recent
visit I made to the WAMO studio's promoting the Pittsburgh Race for the
Cure. So many of my friends have seen the stories on television or read
about this issue in the paper and they want to know which products to be
concerned about.

However I wanted to give you more so I went to the Internet and looked
for articles from the Center for Environmental Oncology and found one
titled: Why Healthy People Get Cancer: Center Examines Environmental
Suspects (update spring 2005).

The article stated, one of immediate research priorities of the new
center is the puzzling phenomenon of breast cancer in African-Americans
under the age of 40, who have nearly twice as much breast cancer as do
white women.

The center will work with Silent Spring Institute, a Massachusetts
based cancer institute, to identify suspect contaminants and ingredients
in hair care products and other personal products regularly used by
African-American young women and their mothers.

More recently, attention has turned to estrogenic compounds in hair
care products used by Black women as a possible explanation for higher
cancer rates in this population.

I've started to carry copies of the list in my purse but we're going to
share it with you right here. The list simply says: The following is a
list of products that have previously been found to contain hormones:

Placenta Shampoo, Queen Helene Placenta cream hair conditioner,
Placenta revitalizing shampoo, Perm Repair with placenta, Proline Perm
Repair with placenta, Hormone hair food Jajoba oil, Triple action super
grow, Supreme Vita-Gro, Luster's Sur Glo Hormone, B & B Super Gro,
Lekair natural Super Glo, Lekair Hormone hair treatment with Vitamin E,
Isoplus Hormone hair treatment wit Quinine, Fermodyl with Placenta hair
conditioner, Supreme Vita-Gro with allantoin and estrogen plus TEA-COCO,
Hask Placenta Hair conditioner, Nu Skin body smoother and Nu Skin
Enhancer. < BR>

The majority of these products contain placental
extract, placenta, hormones or estrogen. As early as 1983 Dr. Devra
Davis (epidemiologist and director of the Center for Environmental
oncology, part of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute) and
co-researcher Leon Bradlow advanced the theory that xenoestrogens,
synthetic estrogen imitators, were a possible cause of breast cancer.

Davis also says, "most cases of breast cancer are not born, but made
and the more hormones a woman is exposed to in her lifetime, the greater
her risk of breast cancer."

We need to be more cautious of the products that we use on our hair and
our bodies and demand that more information about our health is shared.
Ladies and gentlemen beware.

(Email the columnist at debbienorrell.com.)

[shulta]

Well IMHO I've had a look at the ingredients of some other products and I don't think that "they" (who ever wrote the article):

1. Knows about the purported cancer causing ingredients in ALL water based commercial beauty products that are marketed to EVERYBODY.

2. Do I think they understand the can of worms that they have opened by stigmatising Black Hair Care products in such a way.

One purported ingredient is Paraben another Formaldehyde another oxides etc...

For example here is a wash on wash off product that is used by millions worldwide.

Although it is rinsed away - the ingredient's residue from the product still remains or else your hair & scalp would not be "clean"

Neutrogena® T/Gel Daily Control Shampoo, 2 in 1
Dandruff Shampoo Plus Conditioner
Fast-Acting Dandruff Relief

Ingredients:
Active Ingredients: Zinc Pyrithione (1%)

Inactive Ingredients: Water, Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Disodium Cocamphodiacetate, Glycol Distearate, Divinyldimethicone/Dimethicone Copolymer, C12-13 Pareth-3, C12-13 Pareth-23, Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein PG-Propyl Silanetriol, BHT, Tocopheryl Acetate, Amodimethicone, Castor Isostearate Succinate, Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride, Sodium Methyl Cocoyl Taurate, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Acrylates Copolymer, Dichlorophenyl Imadazoldioxolan, Blue 1, Fragrance
herbal essence fusions for dry damaged hair.

ALS & SLS (Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate & Sodium Laureth Sulfate)
Various research papers show that ALS & SLS have protein-denaturing properties, causing the skin on the scalp to separate and become inflamed.
(taken from "Denaturation of Epidermal Keratin by Surface Active Agents", Journal Invest Dermatology, pages 32-81; 1959.)
It is this property that may leave mucous membranes in the mouth open to microscopic damage. ALS & SLS has been shown to contribute to mouth and gastrointestinal ulcers
(taken from "Sodium Lauryl Sulfate and recurrent aphthous ulcers- a Preliminary Study" - ACTA Odontol Scan, 52, 1994: pages 257-259 and "The Effect of Sodium Lauryl Sulfate on Recurrent Aphthous Ulcers").


Cocamidopropyl Betaine
Is used to thicken shampoos, and to reduce the irritation that would result if only more irritating detergents were used in the formulation. It is usually listed after the known irratants.
Cocamidopropyl Betaine has antibiotic effects, and is used in personal sanitary products, it also has anti-static properties, making it a conditioning agent in shampoos.

Disodium Cocamphodiacetate
A non-irritating, yet effective surface-active agent which thoroughly cleanses the hair without excessively stripping away the necessary oils.

Glycol Distearate
Is a form of various drying alcohols.

Divinyldimethicone/Dimethicone Copolymer
Silicones which are made from sand.
Copolymers are rubber derived.

Acrylates Copolymer
taken from http://www.pslc.ws/mactest/acrylate.htm
Acrylates are a family of polymers, which are a type of vinyl polymer. Acrylates are of course made from acrylate monomers, and it's about time we explained what those are. Acrylate monomers are esters which contain vinyl groups, that is, two carbon atoms double-bonded to each other, directly attached to the carbonyl carbon.

Tocopheryl Acetate
Synthetically made vitamin E.

Parabens
Methylparaben & Propylparaben have been found in the breast tissue of cancer victims.
Here is one of the many links that are out on the net regarding the toxcidity of Parabens:
http://www.health-report.co.uk/parabens.htm

Please correct me if I am wrong here but I do think that it is time that we - as nappturals - really start to read and understand the ingredients in the products we use.

There are hair gels on the market that contain Sodium Polyacrylate which is in fact Baby Diaper Absorbent Gel. Here's some more info on this ingredient:
Sodium Polyacrylate which is "a polymer, meaning that it consists of chains of identical units (monomers). The monomer for sodium polyacrylate is:

--CH2--CH(CO2Na)--

It is a pretty cool polymer -- shake the crystals out of a new diaper (or buy the crystals at a garden center) and add water to them. Pretty amazing!"
Taken from http://home.howstuffworks.com/question207.htm

How sodium polyacrylate is made:
(The following excerpt below is from - http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/mar99...0790.Ch.r.html) (http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/mar99/921040790.Ch.r.html))
Sodium hydroxide is first applied to the fibers, then polyacrylic acid. The result is sodium polyacrylate precipitated on the
fibers. Now the essential trick is the following: if you take a classical
water-loving (hydrophilic) absorbent like cotton, its volume shrinks a lot
when you soak it in water, because the surface tension of the water drives
the system to minimize water interface area. A superabsorbent, on the other
hand, due to the polyelectrolyte which glues the fibers together in a
crosslinked structure, is BUTTRESSED AGAINST SHRINKAGE (the fibers cannot
move relative to each other). The WHOLE VOLUME spanned by the original
"fluffy" fibers can thus be filled by water. In terms of weight, this is a
multiple of the dry fiber weight.
Considering that this patent was granted in 1980, the idea really seems to
have filled a need..

Further Info:
http://daddytypes.com/archive/2005/02/16/s...rs_anymore.html (http://daddytypes.com/archive/2005/02/16/sodium_polyacrylate_its_not_just_for_diapers_anymo re.html)

This COULD ALSO be cancerous but that article didn't mention that large manufacturers use it in their hair gel.

IMHO it's fine for baby's pee but NOT OK for my lovely napps.

PLEASE - read the label of the ingredients you use in hair & skin care products, 60% of these ingredients penetrate thru our skin and scalp.
Educate yourself & ask questions!

Oh I am going to type-off because I feel like I have said my piece.. :wub:

[Autumn]

They had an article in today's metro about ingredience (sp) that cause harm over time parabens, sodium Lauryl Sulphate etc

[shulta]

I know eh!
....and they have the nerve to pick on Black Hair Care products when they should actually be looking at the stuff that the big boys make.
Full of s**t that brakes our cells down over time.

I mean HONESTLY!
I would like to know if the person that wrote this article is a chemist..