Hair-straightening chemical products linked to increased uterine cancer risk in new study
Called bisphenol A (BPA), the endocrine-disrupting chemical commonly found in plastics is linked to increased risk of uterine and breast cancer, according to a new study published Aug. 31 in the Journal of Toxicology.
The study, led by Susan Aaronson, an OB-GYN and a professor of surgery at the University of Rochester, focuses on the possibility of BPA contamination in the U.S. diet and lifestyle. (Aaronson is a consultant for the Center for Public Integrity.)
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. consumes 15.2 pounds of BPA per person (that’s the equivalent to the weight of a small car.)
In the study, a mouse uterine cancer model was used. The rodents were divided into four groups, two experimental groups of two mice each and one control group of one mouse each. (An all-female mouse uterine cancer model has not been used in previous research.)
The mice were given oral doses of BPA.
The authors state that a previous study by the same group in 2012 reported an increase in the risk of female breast cancer in women administered BPA. But the follow-up study in 2015 — with a much larger number of participants and more detailed analysis — didn’t show any increase in breast cancer incidence.
In this follow-up study, the researchers found the same results in the uterine cancer model and also concluded that there was no increase in the incidence of breast cancer in female mice administered BPA.
Aaronson and her colleagues theorize that this discrepancy may be due to differences in the way the different laboratories measured BPA levels and in the way the study looked at BPA levels and cancer risk.
“We found that mice receiving the highest dose of BPA had higher concentrations of BPA in their blood because the mice consumed higher amounts of food containing BPA than mice that consumed lower amounts of BPA,” Aaronson told the Center for Public Integrity. “The concentrations in the blood were not so high that they would be detectable in the tissues.”
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