This weekend, I was getting a few things from CVS when I came across “natural, aluminum-free” deodorant. I’d never heard of this before and had no idea why it would be a selling point so I looked it up. It turns out that the active ingredient aluminum is suspected to cause breast cancer and there have even been studies done to find out if it is true or not (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22995589).
Though research so far has not been very definitive, it seems that aluminum might be toxic to DNA and interfere with estrogen receptors. Estrogen promotes the growth of breast cancer, and the pathway involves ligand-activated zinc fingers, which we’ve talked about in class! (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16045991)
I thought it was so interesting how much of this chemistry we know from what we’ve learned in class. Also, it’s super applicable because we all use deodorant (I hope) so it truly affects all of us. Right now, research points to no adverse effects, though there hasn’t been enough research done to determine long-term effects and definitively conclude that there is no relationship between aluminum salts and breast cancer. So it may be wise to switch to an aluminum-free deodorant for the time being.