The title of this entry sure scares more than one, because most women today dye their hair, so I will discuss the issue with lead feet, basically because I have not been able to find the study to which It refers to contrast information.
In any case I tell you what the press release says about this study, which is exactly what you have read when you look at the title: dyeing hair during pregnancy could increase the risk of leukemia in the child.
The study has been carried out by the National School of Public Health and the National Cancer Institute, in Brazil, and more specifically by the biologist Arnaldo Couto.
Apparently, this biologist who has been studying factors related to leukemia for years has found a relationship between the use of products to dye hair and to straighten it during pregnancy and the appearance of acute leukemia in children under 2 years. According to comments, women who use these products make the risk of leukemia two to three times higher if they used such cosmetics in the first and second trimester of pregnancy.
To make the study, children under 2 years of age with a diagnosis of acute leukemia and children under 2 years hospitalized for other causes were taken as a sample. From the children, interviews were carried out with the mothers to know the socioeconomic profile of each family, the work of the parents, the habits of life, the family history and, logically, what was the use made of the dyes and products to straighten hair both before pregnancy, during pregnancy and breastfeeding.
The results of the study showed that women who used these products were between two and three times more likely to have a child with leukemia, as we have said, and a similar risk (2.59 times higher risk) if the products were used during breastfeeding.
In the words of Arnaldo Couto himself:
It is important to highlight that we work with the possible risk of leukemia in infants, from the exposure of the mother during pregnancy to these substances. Cosmetic surveillance agencies must fully inform users. Our work suggests that there is still an estimated increase in risk and that reveals the importance of regulatory agencies that verify the chemical composition of products, since some substances present in the products are already defined as carcinogenic.
As I say, I have not been able to find the study (apparently it is a thesis) and I do not know if they have been able to show that there is a cause-effect relationship between these products and the leukemia of children. I comment because It is strange that a woman uses these products without developing a cancerIf a child, during breastfeeding, can develop this disease because his mother has dyed her hair or straightened it. The absorption of the product at the blood level is low (minimum, in fact), as is the passage of the product into the milk. The logical thing is that, if it affects the child, women (mothers or not, infants or not), will also develop cancer by the use of these products.
In any case, a door opens here that will have to continue to be observed, in case more information arrives.
