Study: Permanent hair dye may up cancer risk in women

Researchers have found that permanent hair dye can slightly increase the risk of some types of breast, skin and ovarian cancer. The study from Harvard University in the US, published in the journal The BMJ, also revealed that natural hair colour was also found to impact on the likelihood of some cancers.

Use of hair dye is very popular, particularly among older age groups keen to cover up signs of grey. For example, it is estimated that it is used by 50-80 per cent of women and 10 per cent of men aged 40 and older in the US and Europe.

While the World Health Organisation's International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified occupational exposure to hair dyes as a probable carcinogen, there is no warning about personal use because existing evidence is inconclusive.

To gain a better understanding of the risk of cancer from use of personal hair dye, researchers analysed data on 117,200 women from the Nurses' Health Study, which includes assessments of hair dye exposure.

The women did not have cancer at the start of the study and were followed for 36 years. Ever use of permanent dyes was associated with a slightly increased risk of the basal cell carcinoma of the skin, and this risk was higher in women with naturally light hair.

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