This will be the first epidemiological study conducted in France into the occupational exposure of hairdressers to resorcinol and the effects on the thyroid. It will be carried out by the Institut national de recherche et de sécurité (INRS) in partnership with the occupational health and prevention services (SPST), involving a total of 450 people.
In their presentation of the study, the researchers point out that there are around 70,000 hairdressing salons in France, representing over 150,000 hairdressing professionals, over 85% of whom are women.
As a result of their professional activity, these women are regularly exposed to endocrine disruptors (EDCs). Resorcinol is one of these, used in many hair colourants, and is capable of disrupting thyroid function, with potentially harmful effects on health.
The multidisciplinary study that has just been launched has two main objectives:
• To assess the occupational exposure of hairdressers to resorcinol, mainly using biometrology
• To analyse the relationship between this exposure and various thyroid function parameters measured in the blood.
Occupational exposure to other EPs will also be taken into account
The protocol
A total of 300 hairdressers and 150 employees not occupationally exposed to EPs, aged between 18 and 45, will be recruited by several SPSTs in different regions of mainland France.
The hairdressers’ occupational exposure will be assessed by means of questionnaires filled in daily over the course of a working week, and by measuring certain endocrine disruptors (resorcinol, parabens and ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate) in urine samples collected on several occasions during the same working week, at the …
