The aluminum salts in deodorants could promote the onset of breast cancer, according to an Austrian study.
Scientific publications on the association between deodorants containing aluminum salts and breast cancer continue to follow one another, without however managing to put an end to the debate. A new Austrian study, carried out at the University of Innsbruck, has put some gasoline back into the engine.
The researchers, whose results are published in the journal EbioMedicine, conclude on a significant association. Women who use this type of product several times a day on shaved armpits, and who started before the age of 30, have twice the risk of developing breast cancer.
An always hesitant result
These results come from an epidemiological study of just over 400 women aged 20 to 85, half of whom had breast cancer less than five years old. The Austrian scientists questioned their use of deodorants, and analyzed breast tissue samples to assess the aluminum concentration.
If the metal was found in the tissue of all the women using deodorants containing aluminum salts, the association with breast cancer is only significant for the specific case, and a little extreme, detailed previously. Shaving the armpits causes micro-wounds which promote the penetration of salts into the tissues, and therefore the possible risk.
But again, the study fails to give a straightforward answer to the question.
Other factors, other risks
So, cancer or not cancer? Faced with the multitude of inconclusive studies in either direction on the possible link between aluminum salts in deodorants and breast cancer, it is difficult to conclude on anything other than a negligible risk, at most. Other risk factors such as smoking, obesity or even hormonal treatments seem to be much more influential.
On the other hand, aluminum is not trivial. To hammer home the results of the debate, one would almost forget its intrinsic harmfulness on the bones and the nervous system. The ANSM recommendations therefore make more sense: do not use deodorant with aluminum salts on skin damaged by hair removal or shaving, and limit the metal concentration of the products (to 0.6%).
.
