Chemicals used as preservatives in underarm cosmetics have been detected in human tumours, according to research to be published tomorrow.

The scientist who led the study is calling for further work to determine whether the chemicals, known as parabens, should continue to be used. She has pointed to the potential risks of long-term use of deodorants and the possible danger of excessive use by teenagers.

Many scientists believe parabens, most commonly found in spray-on deodorants, can be absorbed directly into the skin. The chemicals are also thought to disrupt hormones in ways that can lead to cancer.

They are present in other cosmetics as well, and in some food and pharmaceutical products, but permitted levels in these items are so low that scientists do not believe they carry significant medical risk.

Breast cancer cases in Britain have risen from about 20,000 a year in the late 1970s to almost double that number now. Almost 13,000 British women die each year from the disease, one of the world’s highest rates.

Britons are also among the world’s biggest users of deodorants, spending about £400m a year on products containing parabens.

Philippa Darbre, a lecturer in cellular and molecular biology at Reading University, established the possibility of a link between parabens and breast cancer in earlier research. She has now found evidence of the presence of the chemicals in cancerous body tissue at levels that she says give cause for concern.

The new research, carried out on tissue from 20 cancer sufferers, shows the level of parabens that had been absorbed in four of the tumours was so high that it could have had a damaging biological effect on cells.

More research will be needed, says Darbre, to compare levels of absorption between cancerous and healthy tissue. Those findings should be used to assess whether restrictions on the chemicals are required.

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