No link found between hair dyes and cancers

May 24 2005

The growing worldwide concern about a possible link between hair dyes and some forms of cancer, which was further fuelled by one recent study showing an apparent positive relationship, prompted a European Commission safety panel to call for an urgent review.

The review of 79 studies from 11 countries has concluded that hair dye does not appear to cause breast or bladder cancer.

The report by researchers at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain found that their results indicate that, globally, there is no effect of personal hair dye use on the risk of breast and bladder cancer, but they add that there is a borderline effect for hematopoietic cancers such as leukaemia and multiple myeloma.

They say however that the evidence of a causal effect is too weak to represent a major public health concern.

The researchers have called for more study of the cancer risk from dye in the workplace, where beauticians and others have more prolonged exposure than individual users.

The report says that an association between hair dyes and cancer would be an important public health concern as approximately one-third of women in Europe and North America, along with 10 percent of men older than 40 years, use some type of hair dye.

Many dyes contain aromatic amines which are believed to cause genetic mutations and are potential cancer-causing agents in both animals and humans.

The study is published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association.