Latest Fact Sheet

Season 3, Ep 1 - Deodorant

Deodorant/ Antiperspirant Fact Sheet

· Deodorants and antiperspirants are different things. Deodorants kill odour causing bacteria under your arms, antiperspirants stop you sweating.

· Because antiperspirants work by blocking your sweat ducts, the American FDA classifies them as drugs, and the come under strict controls. Deodorants are classified as cosmetics and are not subject to FDA regulations.

· Aluminium chloride is the oldest antiperspirant active ingredient is also quite acidic, irritating skin and eating holes in clothes. These days it’s only used in high specialty products for people with problem sweating

· Aluminium chlorohydrate, one if the most common ingredients in use today is not acidic and is much gentler on skin and clothes, but it isn’t as effective.

· The newest generation active ingredient is aluminium-zirconium tetrachlorohydrate complex. This is both mild and as effective as aluminium chloride.

· You can find all three active ingredients in sticks or roll-ons, but all spray on antiperspirants contain aluminium chlorohydrate. Aluminium chloride is too corrosive to put in cans, and zirconium is not allowed in spray ons because the FDA is concerned that inhaling it could damage our lungs.

· It is not known exactly how antiperspirants block our sweat ducts. The most commonly accepted explanation is that they react with the water in our sweat to form a gelatinous gloop that physically blocks the duct.

· The plugs of antiperspirants are in the outer most layers of our skin. They can stay in place for days, and are eventually lost as we shed our outer layers of skin.

· Spray-ons go on dry because the use a volatile silicone solvent (cyclomethicone, aka cyclopentasiloxane). They often contain less active ingredient than roll-ons, and only use the least effective ingredient. For these reasons they are the least effective form of antiperspirant.

· Aluminium has no known functions in the human body, prompting some people to be concerned that it is unnatural and even dangerous to smear it on their skin. But there is no evidence that the aluminium in antiperspirants has a toxic effect on our bodies.

· There is no proof of any relationship between aluminium and either breast cancer or Alzheimer’s disease.

· Many different kinds of chemicals will kill bacteria, including aluminium salts used as antiperspirants. · Silver has long been known to have preserving properties (the ancients already knew that water kept in a silver vessel didn’t spoil over time). Today we know that’s because it kills bacteria. But the silver dihydrogen citrate formula used in Nivea Silver Protect is the first formulation stable enough to use in cosmetics.

· In deodorants that don’t include an antiperspirant ingredient, the most common antibacterial agent is Triclosan. The same antibacterial ingredient is used in everything from hand soaps to toothpaste and dishcloths.

· Triclosan is a persistent organic pollutant. It bio-accumulates up the food chain. We don’t know what effect it has on marine life.

· There is no danger in eating fish because the levels of Triclosan we are likely to be exposed to from food are much lower than we encounter in cosmetic products.

· In wastewater treatment plants much of it is converted to methyltriclosan which persists even longer in the environmen, but it’s been so poorly studied that little is known’s about its toxic effects.

· Triclosan has been it’s been shown to affect the thyroid growth regulating pathways within American Bullfrogs. This kind of interference with the hormonal system is known as ‘endocrine disruption.’ Studies on human cells in the lab also suggest hormone like activity.

· American Congressman Edward Markey wrote to the FDA asking “Has the FDA reviewed the scientific evidence regarding the endocrine disrupting nature of Triclosan?” The FDA responded that in it’s opinion “existing data raise valid concerns about the effect of repetitive daily human exposure to these antiseptic ingredients” Read the full response at http://markey.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3964&Itemid=141

· Another growing concern is that bacteria constantly exposed to low levels of Triclosan could evolve to become resistant to it. An even bigger concern is that bacteria develop cross-resistance to other kinds of antibacterials, possibly giving rise to superbugs that are resistant to strong antibiotics.