We all kind of freaked out when the news broke that benzene had been detected in benzoyl peroxide. I mean, makes sense, right -benzene even sounds like benzoyl - how did nobody think of this before! And the lab that detected it got Zantac pulled from the market and it was even discussed at Fall Clinical..."There is no safe amount of exposure to benzene..." The final straw was when an article dropped in JID -JID for goodness sake - about the problem.

Not so fast. Our trio did a deep dive and there is WAY more to this story than meets the eye. Join us as we get into the nitty grittywith John Barbieri (from Harvard!) about his published research on the topic along with the well­ known Australian cosmetic chemist, Michelle Wong, PhD (aka "Lab Muffin").

Derms on Drugs is produced by Scholars in Medicine.

John Barieri 

John Barbieri, MD, MBA is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and the Director of the Advanced Acne Therapeutics Clinic at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is an associate editor at JAMA Dermatology and is also the co-chair of the American Academy of Dermatology Acne Guidelines Work Group. His research is focused on conducting innovative clinical trials, health economic, and epidemiology studies to identify the best approaches to care for patients with acne. He also focuses on exploring the role of patient-reported outcomes to ensure we are capturing the patient’s voice and perspective on their care. 

Dr. Barbieri has received consulting fees from Honeydew Care.

Michelle Wong

Michelle Wong is a science educator and chemistry PhD. In 2011 she started the website Lab Muffin Beauty Science, where she explains the science behind beauty products for a general audience. She has since expanded to YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, and is known for her work debunking myths. Her book The Science of Beauty was released in June 2024, and she is the cofounder of BeautySciComm. Through her science communication work, Michelle has worked with many brands on campaigns, and delivered invited talks at international conferences. Her work has been featured in Wired, The New York Times, ABC News, and Chemistry & Engineering News.

Social media handles:

YouTube, IG, Threads, TikTok: @labmuffinbeautyscience

Bluesky: labmuffin.com

Website: labmuffin.com

Substack: labmuffin.substack.com

Resources:

1.   Evaluation of Benzene Presence and Formation in Benzoyl Peroxide Drug Products

 PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39384016/

Full Text Link: www.jidonline.org/action/showPdf?

2.   No evidence for an association between benzoyl peroxide use and increased blood benzene levels in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38950699/

Full Text: https://www.jaad.org/article/S0190-9622(24)00980-0/fulltext

3.   Benzoyl peroxide for acne treatment is not associated with an increased risk of malignancy: A retrospective cohort study

PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39002561/

Full Text: https://www.jaad.org/article/S0190-9622(24)01051-X/fulltext

4: Benzene in your products, Part 2: The story of Valisure. Lab Muffin Beauty Science.

 https://labmuffin.com/benzene-in-your-products-part-2-the-story-of-valisure/

5: Shelf-stable formulations of benzoyl peroxide and methods of producing same https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2023177625A1/en

6. A Legal Shakedown Exposed: How Valisure tried to cash in on its dubious claims about cancer. https://www.wsj.com/articles/valisure-cancer-claims-zantac-dry-shampoo-david-Iight-11675806424