After the risks of uterine cancer, new alert on the dangers of smoothing products for the kidneys

A team of nephrologists at the Conception hospital in Marseille deciphered the effects of a smoothing product on the kidneys of a 26-year-old young woman. They identified the culprit: glyoxylic acid which can reach and damage the kidneys.

New alert on hair straightening products today with Géraldine Zamansky, journalist at Health Magazine on France 5. Nephrologists from the Conception Hospital in Marseille have deciphered the toxic effects on the kidneys of a hair straightening product.

franceinfo: After the risks of uterine cancer, is it a serious threat to the kidneys that has been reported by a French team?

Geraldine Zamansky: Yes, we told you here about the increased risk of uterine cancer linked to these straightening products. Because of one ingredient: formaldehyde. So manufacturers replaced it with glyoxylic acid. But it in turn represents a real threat to the kidneys, according to the alert published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine.

It all started with a young woman’s concern about the repetition of symptoms that had suddenly occurred: nausea, vomiting, fatigue. At the third crisis, she was taken care of at the Conception Hospital in Marseille. And this is where the enigma was solved by Dr. Thomas Robert, nephrologist: each time it was an acute kidney failure, caused by hair straightening, carried out the day before.

This is very worrying! And how could the link be established with certainty?

Dr. Robert told me that he was able to make this connection thanks to the proximity of the visit to the hairdresser, during hospitalization. He immediately expressed his suspicions to a Parisian colleague, Professor Emmanuel Letavernier, who conducts research on the mechanisms of kidney disease at Tenon Hospital.

It was therefore in his laboratory that the cream collected from the hairdresser could be applied to the skin of a few mice. In 24 hours, I quote Professor Letavernier, “It was catastrophic.” Their kidneys were blocked by a large amount of crystals. The proof was made. And they clarified the guilt of glyoxylic acid, adding it alone to petroleum jelly. Same result.

It seems incredible, such toxicity! How is the young patient today?

She’s fine, but she won’t do any preening anymore. Because Dr Robert explained to him that behind the apparent recovery of his kidneys, there may remain scars, then responsible for chronic kidney failure with, in the extreme, dialysis or transplant.

The team is afraid of seeing these cases multiply, because its investigation with the hairdresser revealed the origin: clients want treatment right down to the roots, whereas this product should not be applied to less than 5 mm. skin. This is where it can enter the bloodstream and become toxic.

These nephrologists therefore very quickly reported this threat to the health authorities, and hope for a ban on this ingredient, as well as a review of the safety of cosmetics. Because since the end of their evaluation on animals in 2013, this type of danger can hardly be identified, prior to marketing.

The alert published in the New England Journal of Medicine.