Are parabens safe to use?
Concern over parabens, a group of cosmetic preservatives, has made headlines because of research showing that parabens are endocrine disrupters due to their estrogenic potential on cells. This research involved both oral administration and injection into rat skin which did show evidence of a weak estrogen effect on cells in a way that could be problematic for binding to receptor sites associated with proliferation of MCF-7 breast cancer cells. In another study it was present in 20 breast cancer samples.
