It’s been a concern in the hair salon for years- do hair dyes cause cancer? Now, new research looks at the evidence and has come up with a conclusion. Hair dye is something many women and men won’t live without, so if there is a significant connection between hair dye and cancer, it is an important health concern.
“I’m a musician, so I go through the spectrum of colors quite often. Definitely a couple of times a month,” says Timothy Falzone.
Alma Queraxhiu, owner of Alma Salon in New York, says, “Most women color their hair regularly.”
In fact, one-third of women in North America and 10 percent of men older than 40 use some type of hair dye. So, an association between hair dyes and cancer would be a significant public health concern. And it’s been believed by some, for a long time now, that hair dye and cancer are related, and that regular use of hair dye can cause bladder cancer.
There are certain chemicals called aromatic amines which have been shown to be carcinogens in animals and humans. A 2001 study published in the International Journal of Cancer showed a positive relation between hair dyes and bladder cancer. A European commission called for an urgent review of the data. They too found the hair dye and -bladder cancer link.
But now, a new study, which combined the results of 79 different studies to make it more powerful, found overall no strong evidence of increased risk of cancer with hair dye use.
The research is published in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Dr. Avi Barbasch, Associate Professor of Medicine at the Mt. Sinai Medical Center, says, “I think it actually can make some people feel at ease. There may have been other reasons for people to develop cancers in those groups that weren’t looked at. But I think that final data needs to be clarified and more studies need to be done.”
There was a possible connection between hair dye and blood cancers, namely leukemia and multiple myeloma, but the connection is questionable at best. “The regulatory agencies ought to look at the content of the hair dyes and if there are any carcinogens in them, they need to be removed.”
The study reinforces what Shirley believed all along. “I know the chemicals they use are safe. So the possible connection between hair dye and cancer is not really a huge concern of mine.”
The authors are most concerned about those working in a profession where exposure to hair dyes is more prolonged and where they might get a higher concentration, at a higher frequency, of the potential cancer causing substances.
For more information on the connection between hair dye and cancer, and to read the study, click here:
http://pubs.ama-assn.org/