• Question: Do you believe that antiperspirant's effects are benine or genuinely concerning?

    Asked by coolguy to Kylie, Matt, Bex, RobB, Sam on 13 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Matt Dunn

      Matt Dunn answered on 13 Jun 2016:

      It depends on the antiperspirant!

      Most products on the shelf are well-tested and they wouldn’t be sold if they were dangerous, so most of the ones you see are benign, unless you use them in huge amounts, or set fire to the cans.

      Some types of antiperspirant contain harmful chemicals such as aluminium, which is linked to certain diseases, but if you read the labels on your products carefully, you’ll quickly see which are safe and which are not.

    • Photo: Kylie Belchamber

      Kylie Belchamber answered on 14 Jun 2016:

      I agree with Matt, most antiperspirants are well tested, so I’m not worried by them.
      Some of the concern is about breathing in the spray, so as long as you do it in a well ventilated room (in your bedroom, not the bathroom with the door shut) then there is no concern!
      Some people are worried about ones that contain metals. You can also get spray plaster with silver in it, to help heal cuts. Research in my group is looking at the effects of nanomaterials – really tiny bits of metal – that can be breathed in, and we don’t think they are doing any good. my advice for those is to read the label, and avoid if can. or just use a roll on instead!

      There was also some stuff in the news about a person in America claiming that baby powder caused their ovarian cancer. As far as I can tell, there is no proof of this whatsoever! It is a case of correlation does not equal causation. Meaning that just because someone that used baby powder got cancer, it doesn’t mean that everyone that uses it will. Far from that infact.

      I hope that helps!

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