Could Hairspray be Linked to Genital Birth Defects?

Ladies, we all know that a good day at the beauty salon makes us feel radiant, but did you know that hairdressers who are pregnant and in contact with hairspray every day could be exposing their unborn child to harmful chemicals that could lead to genital birth defects?

A recent study that was conducted showed that the sons of beauticians and hairdressers were more than twice as likely to be born with hypospadias, which is when the urinary opening appears on the underside of the penis. The disorder can usually be corrected with a simple procedure, although it can occasionally lead to infertility and sexual dysfunction.

Paul Elliot and colleagues from the Imperial College in London interviewed approximately 471 mothers whose sons had been born with this particular defect and 490 mothers of children that were not born with this defect, to find out which chemicals the mother had been exposed to, including printing ink, glues, exhaust fumes, or hairspray.

While other substances did not return any results that were statistically significant, the use of hairspray appeared to have a very big impact. Of the 74 women who reported that they had regular exposure to hairspray at work during the first three months of their pregnancy, 50 of them gave birth to sons with this genital defect.

In contrast, the children that were born with the defect were much lower in the women that did not report having regular contact with hairspray – just 294 out of 618 women.

The research team suggests that a group of chemicals called phthalates that are found in hairspray may be to blame for this outcome. Phthalates are known to interfere with the hormones that are associated with the development of the reproductive system in infants.

These chemicals have been banned in cosmetics or hairsprays in the EU since the year 2005, but not in the United States, where they are only banned for the use in toys for children. Elliot’s study took a look at British children before the chemicals were banned.

Alarm bells were raised when an older study found elevated levels of toxins in teething rings for babies. Therefore, since phthalates are used commonly in the plastic and pharmaceutical industry, particularly in the United States, the researchers suggest that other women besides beauticians and hairdressers may also be putting their babies at risk.

Elliott says that the real worry is that women who are pregnant may be exposing their infants to other harmful chemicals that interfere with the body’s hormones that we don’t fully understand the effects of yet. He also stated, “There are a range of chemicals that could affect [male hormones] in developing fetuses—like estrogens used in pharmaceutical products and which are also found in small quantities in the water supply.”

This new study does bring some good new to women who are expecting. The researchers found that women who take folic-acid supplements are 36% less likely to give birth to infants with the disorder. In addition to this finding, vegetarianism—which had been previously linked in cases of hypospadias in a smaller study—turned out to have no impact on the risk of giving birth to a child with the disorder.