How many chemicals and elements do we have to think about?

Home-care products like soap, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, fragrance, and anything else rubbed or sprayed on the body have increasingly been labeled “[chemical-name-here]-free.”

Specifically, in deodorant, the element in question is aluminum. But why avoid putting aluminum on your armpits? Are there genuine health risks to aluminum?

Here’s the science:

What is Aluminum?

Photo by Julia Maior on Unsplash

Most of us know about aluminum from the foil used in ovens to bake on cookie sheets — though our alarm bells haven’t yet commercially produced aluminum-free aluminum foil! There’s already tin foil for that!

But given how prevalently we use aluminum, what exactly is it?

Regarding material products we regularly consume, asking what it is — inquiring, in other words, into their nature — is the pathway to knowing whether or not they are “good” for our health.

Hence, aluminum is a chemical element on the periodic table of elements with the atomic number 13 — making it an odd entry, as often “chemicals” labeled “dangerous to health” are artificially derived, not naturally occurring.

A lightweight silverish-white iridescent metal, according to the Royal Society of Chemistry, aluminum has been used by humans for far longer than humans have understood its chemical composition.

For example, as the Royal Society mentions, a metal ornament found in the tomb of the 3rd-century Chinese military leader Chou-Chu was 85% metal, which means knowledge of aluminum’s use-value — i.e., the utility of an object for practical or enjoyment purposes — pre-dates understanding of aluminum’s material nature.

Aluminum is used by humans primarily as a material to build tools or crafts like planes and is the most abundant metal on the earth’s crust — found typically in a mixed form with minerals like bauxite and cryolite.

The Biological Role Aluminum Plays for Humans

Consuming aluminum is impossible, even if you avoid using a deodorant that uses it. According to a study from the Ciba Foundation Symposium, “most adults consume 1–10 mg aluminum daily from natural sources [such as water and food additives.].”

Even using metal utensils contributes to the commonplace consumption of aluminum — despite being nutritionally nonessential, according to researchers writing in the journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, “no reports of dietary aluminum toxicity to healthy individuals exist in the literature. However, aluminum can be neurotoxic when injected directly into the brains of animals and when accidentally introduced into human brains (by dialysis or shrapnel).”

As Toxicology and Pharmacology researchers further state, the majority of the aluminum humans are exposed to is not absorbed by the body, as it has protective barriers preventing this from happening — such as skin, the lungs, and the gastrointestinal tract — and of the less than 1% of aluminum that is absorbed, most is excreted through bathroom breaks.

In other words, it is pretty normal for humans to chronically be exposed to tiny amounts of aluminum, which is entirely safe.

Another biological role aluminum plays for us is in our use of vaccines. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, aluminum has been a critical ingredient in vaccines since the 1930s — in contrast, the COVID-19 vaccines do not include aluminum.

Specifically, aluminum “adjuvants” — roughly 0.2 mg of aluminum, which is below the normal range humans consume — are used to increase the body’s immune response to the small number of germs it’s exposed to upon receiving a vaccine.

Aluminum’s biological role is uncritical and reactive — which is to say, biological life can survive without exposure to aluminum, and when it is exposed, it is a reaction rather than the fulfillment of an essential need.

Should I Be Worried About Aluminum in Deoderant?

Aluminum is used in typical deodorants/antiperspirants because it can block sweat glands.

Hence, it reduces sweat production and stinks production.

Given the biological role of aluminum and its general safety, why are people worried about aluminum being present in deodorant? Should you be using aluminum-free deodorant instead?

The short answer is “no.”

Many are skeptical of aluminum’s presence in deodorant because ‘aluminum-free’ options now exist — if that’s an option, aluminum must be harmful, right?

If that reasoning were valid, one would have thought that companies would never have included chemicals in their products in the first place, but they did and still do.

When ‘[enter-chemical-here]-free’ products arrive on the market, whether or not the chemical in question is safe is mainly irrelevant to consumer outcomes.

Instead, it is relevant to production outcomes. For example, the Academy of Marketing Science research shows that “consumers are increasingly demanding products that are less processed and free from ingredients that are perceived negatively in various ways.”

The emphasis here on the word “perceived” is despite (or in virtue of) the fact that — according to the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology — lay consumers tend to overestimate their safety behaviors and their awareness of household chemical risks, the perception amplified by these product options is highly credulous — though, because most people spend their money based on the prices of products and services, as opposed to health concerns, aluminum-containing deodorant will almost always win out in sales.

That said, it is inaccurate. The most commonly attributed claim is that aluminum from deodorant is neurotoxic and associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

These claims essentially stretch from the fact that exposure to aluminum in high quantities — something which doesn’t occur in the daily use of deodorant with aluminum — can be neurotoxic.

According to the journal Deutsches Ärzteblatt International, this can happen when dialysis patients are treated with aluminum-containing fluids or if one works in environments with high levels of dust exposure.

Even antiperspirants with “higher” aluminum concentrations — i.e., 10%–30% — aren’t capable of such effects because they aren’t absorbed, and there is no internal exposure.

There is no conclusive evidence — only spurious and debunked evidence — showing antiperspirants with aluminum to be harmful in any way, as stated in the journal Pediatrics.

If it were harmful, it would be akin to getting struck by lightning — a totally off-case of non-serendipity.

Thus, we cannot simply make assumptions or theoretical claims based on hearsay, intuitions, and perception-induced worries — as one anti-aluminum study in the Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology does in step with consumer trends — or whims induced by cleaver marketing psychology.

Based on the scientific evidence, there is no good reason to forego aluminum in deodorant and antiperspirant. If anything, when deodorant contains aluminum, it works better than its aluminum-free counterparts, which often cover up the body for only a short-lived period.