Underarm antiperspirants could be linked to an increased risk of breast cancer, claims a scientist.
Dr Philippa Darbre, a cancer researcher at the University of Reading, says the latest research suggests the ingredients found in many over-the-counter products could trigger the development of tumours.

She believes compounds of aluminium and zirconium in the cosmetics could affect hormone levels, raising the risk of cancer.

The substances help prevent sweating in roll- on and spray underarm antiperspirants.

Though some simple deodorants, designed just to mask odour, do not contain them, most do.

Antiperspirants prevent sweating, while deodorants are simply designed to make people smell more appealing.

Manufacturers insist products are entirely safe.

They declared themselves ' baffled' by Dr Darbre's conclusions, pointing out that several large studies have failed to find any link between cosmetics and cancer.

In Britain, new cases of breast cancer have doubled from about 20,000 a year in the late 1970s to almost 40,000 a year now.

Britain has one of the world's highest rates of the disease and every year about 13,000 British women die from it.

Britons are also big users of deodorants and antiperspirants, spending £400m a year on them.

Dr Darbre, a cancer researcher in the department of cell and molecular biology at Reading, has just published a comprehensive review of research on the issue, which she has been investigating for almost a decade.

"The nature of the chemicals in these cosmetics and the lack of any advice about safe quantity or frequency of application, should be of concern," she says.

Dr Darbre claims the strongest evidence for the theory is the 'disproportionately high incidence' of breast cancer in the upper outer quadrant of the breast where antiperspirants are applied.

Her review, published in the Journal of Applied Toxicology, points out that the rise of breast cancer in men parallels the increase in women, and has also doubled over the past three decades to about 300 cases a year.

Most tumours in both sexes occur in the upper and outer section of the left breast, the proportion in that area having increased from 31 per cent in 1926 to 61 per cent in 1994.

If the use of antiperspirants is to blame, this would be accounted for by the fact most people are right-handed and likely to apply more deodorant to their left armpit, Dr Darbre said.

Formation of breast tumours, Dr Darbre says, is known to be linked to hormone levels.

Laboratory experiments have indicated that chemical compounds derived from zirconium and aluminium may be linked to hormone disruption.

However, scientists stress there is no evidence the small quantities of the chemicals found in antiperspirants may be dangerous.

Dr Chris Flower, of the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Perfumery Association, said that under European and UK law cosmetic products undergo a full safety assessment.

He pointed out that Dr Darbre had been claiming for many years that different substances in antiperspirants, called parabens, might be causing breast cancer. "She now seems to have shifted to aluminium and zirconium," he said. "I'm not quite sure what it is she doesn't like about deodorants, but one might almost feel that she had it in for them." Dr Tim Key, a Cancer Research UK scientist based at Oxford University, said breast cancer rates had gone up because British women were drinking more alcohol, were fatter and were having children later - all factors known to increase the risk.

He added: "There is no need for concern about deodorants, in my view.

"The way science works is that someone puts an idea forward and others follow it if they think it is worth doing so.

"At the moment, not many people think this is a worthwhile line of investigation."

One recent study of 1,500 women found no evidence to support the hypothesis that antiperspirant use increases the risk of developing breast cancer.

The study was carried out after rumours of a causative link were circulated on the Internet.

Scientists at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre, Seattle, found there was no increased risk of breast cancer among women who used antiperspirant or deodorant.

Everything causes cancer nowadays.. Smh