Everyone has an individual morning routine and more often than not it involves putting on deodorant. But how many stop and think, "I wonder if my deodorant is giving me cancer?" Today where the Internet allows people to research any health topic, some people are questioning the effects of the aluminum found in most antiperspirants.
"I read in a magazine this morning about different common items that have aluminum, mercury and lead in them," said Marsha Gladfelder, owner and manager of General Nutrition Center in Opelika.
The threat of cancer is a trendy topic in today's world, but it seems that there is an overwhelming amount of items it can originate from.
Blake Robertson, senior in nursing, wasn't surprised to hear about this rumor of a new origin of breast cancer. "I think oxygen causes cancer today," Robertson said.
The antiperspirants myth, which was started through e-mail, states that the real threat is the aluminum in antiperspirants, but doesn't apply to deodorants.
According to an e-mail, which has circulated around the world and can be found online, "antiperspirant, as the name clearly indicates, prevents you from perspiring, thereby inhibiting the body from purging toxins from below the armpits... Instead, the body deposits them in the lymph nodes below the arms since it cannot sweat them out. This causes a high concentration of toxins and leads to cell mutations: a.k.a. CANCER."
The American Cancer Society (ACS) said these statements were false.
"A carefully-designed epidemiologic study of this issue published in 2002 compared 813 women with breast cancer and 793 women without the disease," the ACS said on its Web site. "The researchers found no link between breast cancer risk and antiperspirant use, deodorant use, or underarm shaving."
Although this study focused on women, the majority affected with breast cancer, the ACS still determined that there was no correlation between antiperspirants and breast cancer effecting men.
This particular threat of breast cancer may be false, but many people are deciding to switch from antiperspirants to aluminum less deodorant.
"We have a lot of customers who use (natural deodorants)," Gladfelder said.
These crystal-formulated deodorants contain no aluminum and come in the same varieties as antiperspirants, including a roll-on, stick and spray.
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