Chemical Exposure through Consumer Product Use
Creators: name: University Of California Office Of The President
Publisher: name: University of California Office of the President
publisherIdentifier: https://ror.org/00dmfq477
publisherIdentifierScheme: ROR
Year: 2024

description: Introduction: Use of consumer products, including personal care (e.g. lotion, make-up, nail polish, haircare and other products used on the body) products, is an important source of chemical exposure to women and girls. In the U.S., there is little regulation of personal care products and manufacturers do not have to prove the product’s safety before selling it to the public. Some of the chemical ingredients in these products have been linked to breast cancer susceptibility, for instance, by causing breast cancer in animal studies or increasing the growth of breast tumors in human cells in laboratory studies. Other chemicals sometimes used in these products are “endocrine disruptors” that mimic or block the effects of hormones, including estrogen, which is a key factor in the development of breast cancer. Marketing and use of products varies considerably by race/ethnicity, but little is known about disparities in exposure to chemicals of concern in these products.
 
 
 Research questions: We propose a community-driven project to advance our understanding of racial/ethnic disparities in personal care product availability, access, and use among Latina, Asian, and African-American women and girls in California. We will examine what products are being purchased, where these products are sold, frequency of use, and what chemicals of concern are in the products used by these different populations, with the ultimate goal of reducing women’s exposure.
 
 
 Methodology: We bring together community health organizations representing Latina, Vietnamese, and African-American women with research scientists to plan, implement, and disseminate the research. Each partner will take a leadership role in a different aspect of the project depending on her organization’s strengths and experience, with all partners learning from each other and building their organization’s capacity to conduct research. We will evaluate the success of our partnership using a validated questionnaire for self-assessment, and the outcome will inform future collaborations among partners.
 
 
 We will conduct a survey among community women to collect information related to the types of products they use, how often they use them, and where they shop. The survey first will be tested among a focus group within each of the three communities. We will survey stores where Latina, Vietnamese, and African-American women in these communities shop to document product availability and products that are marketed to these racial/ethnic groups.
 
 
 We will review product labels and identify products containing chemicals of concern. Within each community, we will purchase products to test for the presence and concentration of specific chemicals and we will identify top products and chemicals of concern for each racial/ethnic group. Community partners will take the lead in returning these results to their respective communities.
 
 
 Innovative elements: Our team of five distinct organizations brings together diverse and unique perspectives to collectively address for the first time the disparities of chemical exposure from product use across multiple racial/ethnic groups in California. Our partnership will use a variety of different methods (community surveys, store surveys, product ingredient review, and product testing) to assess the personal care product chemical exposures of each community group, and will build capacity for future research, health education, and advocacy efforts.
 
 
 Advocacy involvement: We propose to form a coalition representing multi-ethnic community groups and research scientists, who will develop a shared governance structure where each member has an equal stake in planning, implementing, and disseminating the research. The community partners will drive the research by helping to establish the research priorities, identifying products that are particularly marketed to or used by their community, and conducting a focus group, community surveys, and store inventories. The proposed project addresses the potential burden of exposure to chemicals associated with breast cancer, and particularly how women of certain racial/ethnic groups may be disproportionately affected. This project will increase the awareness of the potential hazards of using personal care products containing chemicals of concern and empower women in underserved populations/communities to make choices that can reduce their risk of breast cancer.