Urgent hair straighteners warning as just 10-minutes of grooming exposes you to major lung risks

HAIR straighteners can leave you with more than heat damage, scientists warn.

Chemicals released during your morning hair care routine could be ending up in your lungs, causing “worse than expected” health risks, according to researchers from Purdue University.

Heat styling could be releasing dangerous chemical compounds from hair products[/caption]

Just 10 to 20 minutes of using a straightener or curling tong exposes you to 10 billion nanoparticles, the same amount you’d inhale standing in dense highway traffic.

These chemicals find their way directly into the lungs and could cause serious health risks – including respiratory stress, lung inflammation and memory decline, scientists claimed.

When hair is heated with the use of tools, chemicals from hair products are released into the air rapidly and new pollutants called nanoparticles also form, researchers explained.

Lead author Nusrat Jung, an assistant professor in the Lyles School of Civil and Construction Engineering, said: “This is really quite concerning.

“The number of nanoparticles inhaled from using typical, store-bought hair care products was far greater than we ever anticipated.”

Normally safe haircare products – such as shampoo and conditioner, detangling products and styling gels, lotions and sprays – could become dangerous to your health when exposed to heat, scientists explained.

When heated at temperatures up to 150°C (300°F) by curlers or straighteners, they may start to produce dangerous compounds while chemicals are rapidly released into the air.

PhD student Jianghui Liu, also involved in the research, said: “Atmospheric nanoparticle formation was especially responsive to these heat applications.”

In their previous work, Dr Nusrat and Ms Liu found that heat in hair care routines increased the emission of a volatile chemical called D5 siloxane, which is thought to be harmful when inhaled.

According to Dr Jung, D5 siloxane is used in many hair products and has “become a common ingredient over the past few decades”.

It can help smooth hair and add shine.

However, the European Chemicals Agency classifies D5 siloxane as “very persistent, very bioaccumulative”.

And while test results on laboratory animals are already concerning, Dr Jung said, there is little information on its human impact.

As a result, the use of D5 siloxane in wash-off cosmetic products has been restricted in the European Union.

Nusrat Jung, an assistant professor in Purdue’s Lyles School of Civil and Construction Engineering[/caption]

Dr Jung previously said: “D5 siloxane has been found to lead to adverse effects on the respiratory tract, liver and nervous system of laboratory animals.”

Ms Liu added: “Now it appears that the airborne hazards of these products — particularly ‘leave-on’ formulations designed to be heat-resistant, such as hair sprays, creams and gels — are even greater than we expected.”

For their new study, published in Environmental Science & Technology, researchers asked people to complete their usual morning hair care routine in a specially designed laboratory that measured airborne nanoparticles second by second.

Participants were asked to bring their own hair care products and hair styling tools to replicate their routines.

“Studies of this kind have not been done before, so until now, the public has had little understanding of the potential health risks posed by their everyday hair care routines,” Dr Jung said.

People styled their hair as they usually would at home, while specialised monitors measured the presence of volatile particles in the air over the next hour.

It showed that the heat treatment released large volumes of nanoparticles, including toxic volatile compounds like D5 siloxane.

Dr Jung said: “We discovered that these chemicals were generating bursts of anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 nanoparticles per cubic centimetre.”

The study indicated that more than 10 billion nanoparticles could be deposited in the respiratory system during a single hair styling session, with the highest dose occurring in the pulmonary region — the deepest part of the lungs.

The findings flagged heat-based hair styling as a significant source of airborne nanoparticles.

Levels of emissions were particularly high from ‘leave-in’ treatments designed to be heat-resistant, such as hair sprays, creams and gels.

In order to avoid the potential risks of breathing in nanoparticles, researchers recommended avoiding such products entirely, especially in combination with heat treatment.

If that is not possible, researchers urged people to use them less and air out the space.

Ms Liu said: “If you must use haircare products, limit their use and ensure the space is well-ventilated.

“Even without heating appliances, better ventilation can reduce exposure to volatile chemicals, such as D5 siloxane, in these products.”