A recent study by a group of scientists at the Rutgers State University of New Jersey established a possible link between the application of some widely available topical skin creams with some ingredients in common (i.e. Dermabase, Dermovan, Eucerin or Vanicream) to mice' skin (pre-treated with UVB to increase their risk for skin cancer) leads to an increase of cancer formation in the skin.
Dr Yao-Ping Lu and his team pre-treated the group of 30 mice with UVB twice weekly for a duration of 20 weeks and then applied the said skin creams on the UVB-inflicted mice for 17 consecutive weeks thereafter (1x/day, 5 days per week). The conclusion of the study was that although not more numbers of mice in the treated group had tumours compared to those in the control group, the rate of formation of tumors and the number of tumors was significantly greater.
While I personally find this type of testing which involves animals (who are unable to speak for themselves) cruel and unnecessary, here are some of the issues a number of experts have raised in regards to the study and its findings:
- manufacturers of Eucerin and Vanicream have raised concerns with regards to the design of the study as well as how the findings can be relevant to humans.
- the size of the test group (30) too small for such conclusions.
- mice skin not the best replacement for conducting tests for human skin.
As noted by many other experts in the field, while the conclusions may be dubious, further tests that address the above issues are needed.
What is your take on the study? Do you think we need to be alarmed by these findings?
The article describing the study can be found in the Aug. 14 issue of the Journal of Investigative Dermatology
Credit: Grayburn (Terms of Use), www.cosmeticsdesign-europe.com, style.com
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Skin Cancer Linked To Moisturizer?
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5 Comments:
Gosh - who knows scientific research is hardly ring fenced to be exact and so I sort of lose the will to live with all these things.
I do try to use paraben free suff which is quite hard and I do think about things but I'm going to not worry too much!
Well, I think one must try not to be alarmed until it has been definitely proven true, but it's important to be informed. As for animal testing, I'd rather use something that has been tested on people, 'cause it's more likely to work well, as well as being the more moral thing to do.
Oh, and staying out of the sun is crucial either way, so I try to ^_^. I hate the sun anyway.
Thanks for this post :).
I agree that one must not be alarmed with this study. As you say the population studided was just a few and let's see about the mise skin against humans skin.
Maybe the scientific results can be put in doubt.
But it's important to be awear of this issues.
Well lovely you, I'm getting worried about my stress... I think I might be sick soon...
Hope you'll have a fabulous and rested weekend dear
Luv
xoxo
I agree with you about the cruelty of animal testing. I'm not going to worry to much about the skin cancer and lotion link. I've heard of too many stories where they link certain products with cancer only to come up with insufficient findings.
As you say the population studied was just a few and let's see about the mise skin against humans skin,so it better that we have a resources regarding this its a smart choice to have this one. Your blog is very informative! Keep posting.
by: sphin
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