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American Morning

Paging Dr. Gupta: Hair Dye, Cancer

Aired January 28, 2004 - 08:46   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: There is a new warning for women who dye their hair. A Yale University study finds that long-term use of certain hair dyes can increase a woman's risk of cancer.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now from the CNN Center with details on that.

Hey -- Sanjay. Good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

A very interesting study, and it's been out there in medical lore for some time -- this possible relationship between hair dyes and certain forms of cancer. No one is suggesting a cause-and-effect relationship, but an observational study like the one you mentioned, Soledad, is now being performed -- an observational study to say that they have actually found some sort of association between the two.

This particular study of 1,300 women, 600 of these women actually had a form of this cancer call Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, which is a cancer of the immune system, and about 700 did not. And what they did in the observational studies is they go back to look to see what differences exist between these two women.

And what they found was a hair dye appeared to be a difference. Specifically, they found that hair dye actually seemed to possibly cause a two times increased risk if you met the following criteria, very important: If the hair dye was actually started before 1980. Lots of reformulations of hair dye occurred after that, making them much safer. Also very frequent hair dye use, at least 25 years of dyeing your hair eight times or more a year. And the permanent or darker colors appeared to be of greater risk as well. If you use a permanent type of hair dye, that causes an oxidation, which possibly could be more likely to cause cancer.

The study went on to point out something probably even more important, though, and those are the women who have little or no risk as well from hair dye use. Those are women who started after 1980. No matter how frequent or what color they used, lighter colors appeared to have no significant change in cancer risk; non-permanent and semi-permanent dyes also safe.

Soledad, we also talked to the hair dye industry, folks from that industry are very clear on these sorts of studies. Of course, they've been talking about these studies for some time. This is what they had to say specifically about hair dye use and lymphoma: "Causal relationship between hair dyes and cancer has not been demonstrated" -- never been demonstrated. "Large epidemiological studies show no elevated health risk for women using hair dyes."

It appears to be, again, the bottom line, really, Soledad, with regards to hair dye use is that if you've started using hair dye since 1980, if you don't use it that frequently, and specifically if you use lighter colors, you are probably going to be just fine -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: You talked about Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. But what about hair dye and other kinds of cancers? Is there a link?

GUPTA: Well, that's also been studied. That's a good question, because Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma is certainly the one that's received a lot of the attention, but they also talk about bladder cancer as well. Bladder cancer was something that was studied for some time, looking at the risk of bladder cancer with hair dye use. This is what they found is there was an extremely small risk, and that if the women who were using permanent hair dye monthly for 15 years, those are the women who had the most significant increase in risk.

Also hairdressers and barbers also seem to have an increased risk, maybe because they were coming in contact with these sorts of products often.

The advice, though -- the advice being an important sort of part of this as well for anybody who is concerned about hair dye and the increased cancer risk -- it is an extremely small risk, which I think is worth repeating over and over again. Also, minimizing skin contact with the dye is an important thing, whether it be in your hair or otherwise. Lighter colors, less concentrated are probably going to be less risky as well -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: All right, Sanjay, good advice. Thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.






Aired January 28, 2004 - 08:46   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: There is a new warning for women who dye their hair. A Yale University study finds that long-term use of certain hair dyes can increase a woman's risk of cancer.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now from the CNN Center with details on that.

Hey -- Sanjay. Good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

A very interesting study, and it's been out there in medical lore for some time -- this possible relationship between hair dyes and certain forms of cancer. No one is suggesting a cause-and-effect relationship, but an observational study like the one you mentioned, Soledad, is now being performed -- an observational study to say that they have actually found some sort of association between the two.

This particular study of 1,300 women, 600 of these women actually had a form of this cancer call Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, which is a cancer of the immune system, and about 700 did not. And what they did in the observational studies is they go back to look to see what differences exist between these two women.

And what they found was a hair dye appeared to be a difference. Specifically, they found that hair dye actually seemed to possibly cause a two times increased risk if you met the following criteria, very important: If the hair dye was actually started before 1980. Lots of reformulations of hair dye occurred after that, making them much safer. Also very frequent hair dye use, at least 25 years of dyeing your hair eight times or more a year. And the permanent or darker colors appeared to be of greater risk as well. If you use a permanent type of hair dye, that causes an oxidation, which possibly could be more likely to cause cancer.

The study went on to point out something probably even more important, though, and those are the women who have little or no risk as well from hair dye use. Those are women who started after 1980. No matter how frequent or what color they used, lighter colors appeared to have no significant change in cancer risk; non-permanent and semi-permanent dyes also safe.

Soledad, we also talked to the hair dye industry, folks from that industry are very clear on these sorts of studies. Of course, they've been talking about these studies for some time. This is what they had to say specifically about hair dye use and lymphoma: "Causal relationship between hair dyes and cancer has not been demonstrated" -- never been demonstrated. "Large epidemiological studies show no elevated health risk for women using hair dyes."

It appears to be, again, the bottom line, really, Soledad, with regards to hair dye use is that if you've started using hair dye since 1980, if you don't use it that frequently, and specifically if you use lighter colors, you are probably going to be just fine -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: You talked about Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. But what about hair dye and other kinds of cancers? Is there a link?

GUPTA: Well, that's also been studied. That's a good question, because Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma is certainly the one that's received a lot of the attention, but they also talk about bladder cancer as well. Bladder cancer was something that was studied for some time, looking at the risk of bladder cancer with hair dye use. This is what they found is there was an extremely small risk, and that if the women who were using permanent hair dye monthly for 15 years, those are the women who had the most significant increase in risk.

Also hairdressers and barbers also seem to have an increased risk, maybe because they were coming in contact with these sorts of products often.

The advice, though -- the advice being an important sort of part of this as well for anybody who is concerned about hair dye and the increased cancer risk -- it is an extremely small risk, which I think is worth repeating over and over again. Also, minimizing skin contact with the dye is an important thing, whether it be in your hair or otherwise. Lighter colors, less concentrated are probably going to be less risky as well -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: All right, Sanjay, good advice. Thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.