There has been a lot of publicity on Twitter recently about a video called the Story of Cosmetics.  It is fronted by someone called Annie Leonard in association with an organisation called the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.  I am not sure of the precise structure of the affiliations or how it all fits together, but they seem to come from the same place as the Environmental Working Group, who maintain a database online of cosmetic ingredients with an assessment of the risks they might pose. Read the rest of this entry »

The iconic Head and Shoulders Shampoo brand

Head and Shoulders is in many ways the ideal brand.  Everybody knows what it is and what it does.  The problem it aims to solve is one that we have all had at some time or another.  You find some white specks on your shoulders?  Reach for the brand you have known since childhood. Read the rest of this entry »

I think that the best strategy is to be completely honest. We are pretty sure parabens are safe, but they are very widely used so we really have to be sure. The things are everywhere now after all. Read the rest of this entry »

There is only one point on which I can wholeheartedly agree.  I think that more work should be done to prove that parabens are safe. Read the rest of this entry »

So is there any actual evidence beyond conjecture that links parabens with breast cancer? Read the rest of this entry »

I am pretty sure that this review paper was written after the controversy about parabens had become public, because many of the criticisms of the earlier paper are addressed.

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The first point is that breast cancer is on the increase in recent decades.   This review basically sets out to propose chemicals in cosmetics as an explanation for why breast cancer rates are increasing. Read the rest of this entry »

So what leads Dr Darbre to point the finger at cosmetic chemicals, particularly parabens?  There are ways of assessing quantitatively how similar molecules are to oestrogen.  Many many thousands have already been screened.  What the data actually means is nowhere near as clear cut. Read the rest of this entry »

Gillian McKeith's vitamin C food bar

There has been a long running spat between the Guardian’s Ben Goldacre and Gillian McKeith, the TV health expert.   Ben Goldacre is a qualified Doctor who specialises in debunking poor use of science in the media.  Read the rest of this entry »

It all goes back to 2004 when some research at Reading University was reported on the BBC. The work was done by a researcher called Dr Philippa Darbre and was reported in the Journal of Applied Toxicology. Tests on samples of 20 different human breast tumours showed  traces of parabens in every sample.

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