What is Aluminum Acetate and is it safe?Updated 8 days ago
Aluminum is found naturally in the human diet in small amounts. According to this article on www.healthfully.com.
Beef, poultry, ham, eggs and fresh fruits have 1 milligram or less of aluminum per kilogram of food, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The aluminum in different types of fish ranges between 0.1 and 6 milligrams per kilogram. Most fresh vegetables contain 1 to 4 milligrams per kilogram, except for spinach, which has five times more. Tea leaves are one of the rare plants with a very high aluminum content, but not all of it leeches into the water when you prepare a cup of tea. You may get as much as 3.6 milligrams of aluminum per liter of steeped tea. This is about the same amount as fruit juice, but it’s four times higher than coffee and other beverages.
Aluminum is also used in many anti-perspirants at concentrations upwards of 16%, and The National Cancer Institute’s webpage states that “no scientific evidence links the use of [antiperspirants] to the development of breast cancer.”
Dermeleve® Anti-Itch Cream contains 0.2% Aluminum Acetate. This is 80 to 100 times less than standard anti-perspirants on the market.
In a study, A preliminary study of the dermal absorption of aluminium from antiperspirants using aluminium-26, “Results indicate that only 0.012% of the applied aluminium was absorbed through the skin. At this rate, about 4 micro-g of aluminium is absorbed from a single use of ACH on both underarms. This is about 2.5% of the aluminium typically absorbed by the gut from food over the same time period. Therefore, a one-time use of ACH applied to the skin is not a significant contribution to the body burden of aluminium."
Aluminum on itchy skin:
Aluminum acetate is an aluminum salt. Its used as an active ingredient in Dermeleve® and is regulated by the Over-the-Counter (OTC) FDA monograph which describes aluminum-containing topical products used to treat minor skin irritations. These include:
- Insect bites and stings
- Itchy rashes from soaps, detergents, cosmetics and jewelry
- Poison ivy, oak and sumac
Additional resources on Aluminum:
No, you shouldn’t worry about aluminum in your antiperspirant
Cancer.org: “Antiperspirants and Breast Cancer Risk“