Research on mice suggests shampoo could cause abnormalities
I try to steer clear of reading too much into things like this – I mean there are so many uncertainties in everyday life anyway, we’d all go insane if we gave too much thought to it all. But it is somewhat worrying that products we use today could be causing some of us more harm than we realise.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina have been carrying out tests with the ingredient Diethanolamine (DEA), which is commonly used in certain personal care products, to see the effect it has on the development of baby mice. According to an article on cosmeticsdesign.com, the tests involved applying DEA to the skin of pregnant mice – and the results showed that “due to perturbed choline metabolism in the liver the ingredient prevented cell growth and increased cell death in an area of the brain used for memory.”
The UNC research team conducting these tests with DEA concluded that,”our work suggests that it may have adverse effects on pregnancy outcome and on brain development.” However, Dr Steven Zeisel (who was in charge of the research) did stress that, “the research was still incomplete and that the evidence did not pose any immediate risk to pregnant women exposed to normal levels of DEA found in shampoo and other personal care products”.
Pretty worrying if you ask me – but then again I’m pretty sure most people won’t stop using shampoo. I sometimes think about how in 50 years time we’ll all look back and know then how simple things like an ingredient found in shampoo has affected us – C’est la vie!