New research: This beauty product could cause cancer, DNA mutations
Some products are found to be dangerous long after they’ve been put on sale to the public. The risks can range from minor to deadly, and product recalls can often come too late.
Dry shampoo is convenient when you’re on the go, but one popular brand is being recalled for potentially massive health risks. Tap or click here for everything you need to know.
We know that UV rays from the sun can cause your skin cells to mutate into something awful: cancer. That’s why we use sunscreen. But what about those UV nail polish dryers? Can similar radiation from man-made lamps do the same?
Not worth the convenience
Gel manicures are stylish and long-lasting, but you may want to think twice before getting one. Recent findings courtesy of the University of California San Diego suggests that using UV nail polish dryers may be just as damaging as exposure to the sun, especially when used too often.
One of the study’s authors read an article about a beauty pageant contestant who was diagnosed with a rare form of skin cancer, which prompted his team to look into UV nail polish dryers.
Can these devices really damage your DNA? The answer, shockingly, is yes, according to the study. The team has attached a disclaimer to their research, however, stating that long-term epidemiological studies will be required before this hypothesis can be called conclusive.
At any rate, researchers believe that these machines objectively have an impact on healthy human skin cells.
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The discovery
The study showed that UV dryers produce UV rays between 340 and 395 nm in wavelength. Researchers found that prolonged exposure, around three times the length of one average drying session, caused upwards of 70% of the cell specimens to die.
The ones that survived weren’t exactly unaffected, suffering damage to their mitochondria and DNA. Effectively, they were mutated into what could eventually develop into cancer precursors.
Update: More shampoos found that contain cancer-causing ingredient
Most of the recalls that we cover here deal with defective vehicles. In fact, we just posted a massive recall list of cars earlier this week. Tap or click here to find out if yours made the list.
But sometimes food or personal products put your health in jeopardy. That leads us to ask, how safe do you think it is to use dry shampoo? Most Americans don’t think twice when using this seemingly-harmless product. That may have just changed.
Recall alert: Dry shampoo, conditioners pulled due to cancer-causing chemical
Many of us buy beauty or health products without thinking twice about the ingredients. What goes in a bottle can be a mystery, especially whenever ingredients are listed with scientific-sounding names — like these recalled hand sanitizers that include the toxic chemical methanol.