Hair dye/bladder cancer study
This article was originally published in The Rose Sheet
Executive Summary
The use of permanent hair dye does not increase risk for bladder cancer, according to a study in the September 2006 issue of Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention. Researchers at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center evaluated 712 bladder cancer cases and 712 age-, gender- and ethnicity-matched control cases and found that the use of permanent hair dye was not associated with bladder cancer risk in women or in men. The lack of association was not affected by "duration of use, frequency of use, lifetime use, age at first use, or color of use" in subsequent analyses. However, in 2005, the European Commission Scientific Committee on Consumer Products reaffirmed its opinion that women who frequently use permanent hair dyes may be at higher risk for bladder cancer (1"The Rose Sheet" Oct. 24, 2005, p. 3). A ban on the sale of 22 hair dye substances lacking safety data goes into effect Dec. 1 in the EU (2"The Rose Sheet" July 24, 2006, p. 7)...