Do Skin Moisturizers Promote Cancer?
Every day, women (and men) all over the world slather on moisturizing creams of all prices and varieties, trying to keep their skin supple and defy aging. Starting with advice from our mothers on skin care, and reinforced by modern media, facial creams have always been deemed a must-do ritual. However, several common moisturizing creams have been shown to promote the spread of skin cancer and the growth of tumors in mice exposed to UV radiation. Does this mean you need to retreat and forget all you have learned? No. It just means you need to read the label more carefully to be absolutely safe.
Hairless mice were exposed to UV radiation twice weekly for 20 weeks. The UV treatment was followed by the application of the four common brands of skin moisturizers to the skin of the animals five days weekly for a period of 17 weeks. The treatment resulted in the generation of non-melanoma skin cancer.
The research group, from Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey, discovered that the mice treated with the skin moisturizers showed an increase in the rate of tumor formation and found that more tumors developed on mice treated with moisturizers than on those only treated with UV radiation. The rates of increase in tumor activity from the application of each moisturizer in the analysis were:
