Do Beauty Products Cause Cancer, Or Prevent It?
Why you should always be a bit skeptical of the headlines about epidemiological research
Most epidemiological papers are, when push comes to shove, pretty boring. What epidemiologists mostly do is identify interesting associations that require more follow-up — it’s rare that you ever demonstrate something important to the average human being. This makes it very weird, as an epidemiologist, to see the sort of paper that barely makes a dent in the field appearing in the news every other week.
One such paper came out in 2022, looking at the association between self-reported hair product use and cancer. The main finding that has been repeated by media about the study was that hair straightening chemicals were associated with an increased risk of uterine cancer, which was particularly concerning because these products were mostly used by Black women. So it’s a health issue AND a big equity one, with minority women being the most heavily impacted by this potential health risk.
I wrote about this paper back in 2022, discussing why the results weren’t all that convincing. Briefly, the study was basically a fishing exercise where the authors were looking to find any association at all. The fact that there was one statistically significant link doesn’t mean all…
