What a strange world this is. On one hand people are terrified of bacteria. They shell out without abandon for all sorts of antibacterial cleansers. They’re wiping their kitchens, their bathrooms and their hands with a myriad products formulated to destroy bacteria. But when it comes to applying makeup to their face, mascara to their eyes or deodorants to their armpits, then heck with the bacteria. Bring’em on. Don’t dare adulterate my personal care products with “preservatives,” they say.
Consumers increasingly seek out products advertised as “preservative free,” or “formaldehyde-free” or “parabens-free.” I wonder if they would be as eager to buy these products if the label stated “contents susceptible to bacterial contamination which may result is skin rash or eye infection.” Do people think that cosmetic manufacturers add preservatives just to boost their expenses? No, they add these chemicals to increase the safety of their products. Most cosmetics are oil and water emulsions, just the kind of medium that bacteria need to proliferate. When you rub on moisturizer, you can readily pick up some nice pseudomonas or staphyolococcus bacteria that naturally inhabit the skin and introduce them into the jar when you take your next dab. In the nice cozy moist environment and comfy temperature of the bathroom, these bacteria can happily multiply, waiting to escape the next time a finger dips into the jar. Put the contaminated cream near the eye, and an infection can follow. Put it on the skin, and you may be looking at a rash. If you have an open cut, bacteria can enter the bloodstream and you could be looking at a systemic infection.
Various parabens and formaldehyde releasers added to products in very small amounts, less than 1% of total weight, not only prevent such health problems, but also help prevent spoilage due to bacterial action. So why do people want their cosmetics to be free of such chemicals? Because they have read in alarmist books or pseudoscientific websites that formaldehyde is a carcinogen and that parabens interfere with hormonal function and have been linked to breast cancer. Well, yes, technically formaldehyde is a carcinogen, because if the dose is high enough, it can cause cancer in test animals. But that is a very different situation from its effects when a tiny dose is applied to the skin. Parabens do have estrogenic properties, but depending on which specific paraben we’re talking about, the effects are a thousand to a million times less than that of estradiol, the body’s own estrogen. Furthermore, parabens also have aromatase inhibiting activity, which actually reduces the conversion of testosterone to estrogen. Aromatase inhibitors are actually used in the treatment of breast cancer.
The bottom line is that the trace amounts of parabens that consumers are exposed to from cosmetics are not a health issue. But if the public wants “preservative-free,” then that is what producers will provide. So they are either leaving out preservatives, or loading up their cosmetics with “natural” preservatives of questionable efficacy derived from roses or honeysuckle. Another marketing trick is to use a preservative such as phenylpropanol which is found in flowers and fruits and can therefore be labeled as natural, even though it is actually produced synthetically in the lab. Not that this matters. Phenylpropanol is a safe preservative and whether it is extracted from a plant or made in the lab is irrelevant. There is no difference between the two. But in business the customer is right even when he is wrong. I wonder how long before we see a product marketed as “ingredient-free?” Would sell well, I bet.