Check your soap for triclosan: it may cause cancer

Long-term exposure to triclosan—a popular antimicrobial agent in soaps, detergents, and plastics, still in use in the Philippines—has been found to promote liver cancer in mice. The study was conducted by scientists from the University of California (San Diego and Davis) and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

 

In this study, the researchers fed mice with chow consisting of 0.08% triclosan [5-chloro-2-(2, 4-dichlorophenoxy)phenol]. After eight months of exposure (roughly equivalent to 18 human years), the mice showed enlarged livers and liver fibrosis. Previous studies have shown that liver fibrosis, or the formation of excess fibrous connective tissue in the liver, promotes liver cancer.

 

To analyze how triclosan affects liver tumor formation, the researchers injected mice once with DEN (procarcinogen diethylnitrosamine) followed by exposure to triclosan in their drinking water (200 ppm) for six months. DEN is a weak carcinogen, known to initiate tumor formation. 

 

After six months, more than 80% of the mice exposed to DEN and triclosan developed liver tumors and these tumors were more numerous and larger compared to the ones found in mice exposed to DEN alone. Mice exposed to triclosan also had 450 times more detectable hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs). HCC is the most common type of liver cancer and is the fourth most common type of cancer in the world. 

 

"Triclosan's increasing detection in environmental samples and its increasingly broad use in consumer products may overcome its moderate benefit and present a very real risk of liver toxicity for people, as it does in mice, particularly when combined with other compounds with similar action," said Robert Tukey, senior author of the study. Triclosan is absorbed into the human body through the skin and the gastrointestinal tract.

 

"We could reduce most human and environmental exposures by eliminating uses of triclosan that are high volume, but of low benefit, such as inclusion in liquid hand soaps," said Bruce Hammock, one of the co-authors. "Yet we could also for now retain uses shown to have health value -- as in toothpaste, where the amount used is small."

Unrealistic study?

Triclosan is currently under review by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) due to previous studies linking it to hormone disruption and impaired muscle contraction. However, major manufacturers of consumer products have already started shifting away from triclosan. Procter and Gamble will remove triclosan from all of their products by the end of 2014. Triclosan will be eliminated from Unilever’s skin care and cleansing product lines by the end of 2015, and in oral care products by the end of 2017.  — TJD, GMA News
 

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Macy Añonuevo earned her MS Marine Science degree from the University of the Philippines. She is a published science and travel writer and was a finalist in the 2013 World Responsible Tourism Awards under the Best Photography for Responsible Tourism category. Her writings and photographs may be found at www.theislandergirl.com.