Should parabens really be a concern?

[drunkentester]

After looking at the ingredients lists, a lot of some of the top performing shaving creams (and aftershave balms) out there all contain parabens. I know all the online "organic" website keep talking about how bad they are for the body.

What's people's opinion on this subject matter? Should the fear of parabens keep me from some great English creams?

--Dennis

[burnwood]

The family here does all we can to avoid the parabens but if I really really want it and it has them, I will live with it.
The parabens are bad if they can enter the body. But temporary topical stuff like shave creams isn't as much as a concern for me since it is taken off so quickly and doesn't absorb as much.

[Jimbo]

I wouldn't worry about it (and I don't worry about it). The concentration is very small and there isn't any real evidence they cause cancer. On the contrary, there are a number of studies that demonstrate parabens are safe. They are naturally occuring molecules.
The only reason to avoid them in topical products is if you are allergic.

[BroJohn]

Dennis --

I concur with the two posts above. There are some that avoid all parabens, but for the minute quantities involved, applied topically for a few minutes, and then washed off, it realistically shouldn't be a problem.

-- JOhn Gehman

[Hoos]

No.

[prewt]

Only you can determine your paraben tolerance level. As long as the bens were killed in a humane way, I'm all for using them, ( in moderation as always ).

[sol92258]

I avoid them when possible, but I'm not enslaved to avoiding them

[waitasecun]

Only you can determine your paraben tolerance level. As long as the bens were killed in a humane way, I'm all for using them, ( in moderation as always ).

lol....

[Shane]

Don't worry about parabens.

[sol92258]

Don't worry about parabens.

single- and triple-bens should not be trusted, though

[endcycle]

http://endcycle.blogspot.com/2008/07...omg-oh-my.html <-- I wrote up a post about this back in July on my blog.

Here it is in its entirety ((WARNING- SKEPTICAL AND FACT-BASED CONTENT AHEAD))

Every so often I hear about chemicals that are now thought to be on the prowl in order to, you know, KILL. Things that everyone thought were completely safe turn out to be little molecular Charlie Mansons. The latest OMG SCARY PANIC chemicals are parabens.

Parabens are a group of chemicals that have been used for a long, LONG time in preserving everything from food to cosmetics, and generally are considered extremely safe. There have been no studies showing anything really dangerous about them, but people are still worried about it based on the fact that in very, very large amounts it parabens have been shown to cause some very, very weak increases in estrogen. OMG PANIC!

Well, wait. Don't panic yet.

From the wikipedia article on parabens -

Animal experiments have shown that parabens have weak estrogenic activity, acting as xenoestrogens.[15] In an in vivo study, the effect of butylparaben was determined to be approximately 100,000 times weaker than estradiol, although this effect was only observed when employing a dose level which was 25,000 times higher than is actually used to preserve products.[16] As the estrogenic effect is dose-related, it may be calculated that the estrogenic effect at normal use concentrations of butylparaben is 100,000 x 25,000, i.e. 2,500,000,000 times weaker than estradiol. In the same study it was shown that the in vivo estrogenic activity of parabens is reduced by about three orders of magnitude compared to in vitro activity probably through the rapid metabolism of the parabens to the non-estrogenic metabolites. In vivo data are accepted as being more relevant than in vitro data.

Translation: The estrogen-like effects are ONLY observed when levels 25000 times higher than amounts used in preserving products were employed. The level observed was then REALLY FRICKING WEAK.

Boiled down: Shut up.

If you take ANYTHING in 25,000 times its normal usage there's bound to be an effect or 3. Take 10,000,000 milligrams of Ibuprofen, as an example - that would be, yes, 10 KILOGRAMS of ibuprofen. That's the level of dilution we're talking about here.

Reality: Not just for breakfast anymore!

[Jimbo]

I think you get more estrogenic compounds from microwaving food in plastic containers than you do from Parabens in shave cream.