They’re everywhere. You are surely breathing them, whether you can smell them or not – and whether you can spell them or not – and whether you can pronounce them or not (THA-LATES). In fact, it’s very likely that you or someone in your family received or bought an item containing them over the recent holiday season. They’re ubiquitous and often listed as ‘fragrance’ – usually in scented body products, candles, air fresheners, laundry detergents and fabric softeners, perfumes, colognes, deodorant and cosmetics.
It’s the ingredient that fixes the scent and makes it last longer. It also is used as a ‘penetration enhancer’ as it helps products like lotions get more deeply absorbed into the skin. In some lotions they are used as emollients and humectants – they make the skin seem soft when it’s actually the product on the skin that feels like this, not the skin itself. Thing is, when phthalates are absorbed into the skin, they stay in your body for years. That’s not a good thing because they disrupt the endocrine system.
Hormones control reproductive processes so these buggers can really mess with your body. In a 2007 report, The Natural Resources Defense Council stated, “Phthalates are hormone-disrupting chemicals that can be particularly dangerous for young children and unborn babies. Exposure to phthalates can affect testosterone levels and lead to reproductive abnormalities, including abnormal genitalia and reduced sperm production. The State of California notes that five types of phthalates—including one that we found in air freshener products—are “known to cause birth defects or reproductive harm.” Young children and pregnant women should be especially careful to avoid contact with these chemicals. “
Hormone disruptors, or endocrine disruptors, are linked to early onset of puberty in girls, low sperm counts in men, gender 
abnormalities, and may be linked to metabolic disorders and obesity. They can also stimulate the growth and development of cancers (breast, uterine, prostate), impair fertility, and disrupt pregnancy. Other illnesses are now being associated with exposure to phthalates including heart disease, asthma, and behavioral problems in children.
A relative of mine once said to me, “If the chemicals are so bad, the government wouldn’t let companies sell them to us!” I immediately thought of the propaganda footage for DDT in the ‘40s that show trucks roaming neighborhoods spraying out huge plumes of DDT clouds onto kids running alongside, fogging kids in a swimming pool and in a small schoolroom. In one short film, an entomologist ate a large dose sprayed right into his bowl of porridge to convince Kenyans that it’s harmless . Essentially, like the promotion and use of DDT in the ‘40s before it was found to be a deadly toxin, many current untested and unproven chemicals are used willy-nilly in industry for reasons far less noble than treating malaria – and we are the guinea pigs, often gladly paying for our poisons as we blindly march ahead into the chemical fog. It’s no joke: the Center for Disease Control (CDC) found measurable amounts of at least five kinds of phthalates in 75% of the population in the U.S.
As it stands now in the U.S. in January 2012, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the federal agency responsible for overseeing personal care products, has no authority to ensure their safety. The FDA does not require any testing for safety before products are put on shelves for you to purchase. Furthermore, the FDA does not require that known toxins be listed anywhere on their labels. As for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), they have approved 80,000 chemicals for consumer use. Of those, 2,800 are produced in volumes of more than a million pounds a year, but fewer than half the high-volume ones have been studied for toxicity. Senior scientist, Richard Denizen, PhD, on his blog site, addressed the EPA’s battle to test HVP (high production volume) chemicals: “Clearly, this antiquated system is not anywhere near being up to the task of keeping up with a modern chemicals economy characterized by ever-expanding chemical production. New HPV chemicals – let alone chemicals produced in smaller volumes – are arising far faster than EPA could possibly promulgate test rules to provide the information needed to conduct even the most basic screening of their potential hazards.”
Testing brings up another can of worms, however, as there are questions about who is doing the testing and the source of the tester’s funding. Many of these questions cannot be conclusively determined yet as they may not take into account long-term exposures or be tested in the context of other chemical combinations in typical contemporary environments, which include exposure to hundreds if not thousands of other, often untested, products.
With pressure from consumers and consumer advocate groups, the EPA recently added phthalates to their Chemicals of Concern list and is taking steps toward testing and banning certain products containing phthalates. Phthalates aren’t only in scented products; they’re the ingredient in plastic products to make them soft. Products like baby toys, shower curtains, and food storage items. Fortunately, in 2008, Congress followed the 2005 E.U. ban and passed The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, which banned 6 types of phthalates from children’s toys and products. A good start.
Since the products on store shelves and shown in television commercials and magazine ads have very little screening before they end up in our homes and our bodies, it is up to us to stay informed and keep vigilant to protect ourselves and those we love. And that’s not even to mention the other creatures affected by our actions, especially in many of our fish and amphibian populations. Whether it’s from the manufacturing plants that we encourage from buying their products, or from our landfill waste and our bodily waste, these chemicals have an effect on our own water supplies and our wildlife. Male species of fish and frogs are now producing eggs and have mutated genitals, for instance, and females are having ovarian abnormalities. (Check out New York Times columnist, Nicholas Kristof, on The Colbert Report !)
Phthalates have a distinct odor. Those of us who are sensitive to smells or to chemicals can detect them a mile away. If you are as inundated as most people are in this country by mass-produced scented products, you may not detect the scent of off-gassing from these chemicals. It’s like getting into a new car- you may smell the phthalates at first (from the vinyls, plastics and cleaners) but then quickly get used to the smell and you are no longer conscious of the odor.
For the last 6 years, I’ve been running a green cleaning company. We’ve gone into some clients’ homes who’ve had no clue about the chemicals they’d been using prior to us coming in. Over time, many have switched over to using more natural products in their homes. Those people often tell me how surprised they are at how strong, even nauseating, those chemical products – especially phthalates – now smell to them, whereas before they didn’t notice. Some actually onced liked the scented products before switching. Some, however, have changed their cleaning products and maybe a few other things in their homes but still may burn heavily-scented candles, use carpet shampoos and stain removers, or use laundry products that have greater bodily exposure than their cleaning products would have. It is for people like them that I’m writing this blog post – and for everyone else who may stumble onto my little dearhippie site.
Takeaways
It’s generally pretty safe to buy products that say ‘natural’ and ‘essential oils’ – so long as they don’t also include ‘fragrance’ in their ingredients (some companies are very tricky this way). Avoid products with ‘fragrance’ in the ingredients list in general – stick to unscented products or those scented with essential oils only.
Look for labels of companies who consistently use natural products and make a commitment to the environment – they’re usually a safe bet.
Don’t put your old rubber ducky in your mouth ever again. Or your kids’.
Try to stay away from soft plastics, especially in dishes, food storage containers and baggies. Be creative using other options like glass, ceramic, pottery, butcher paper, waxed paper and the like.
An aside: if you’re looking for candles, try to get those whose wicks are made in the U.S. – many made in China have lead in them, even if they are soy or ‘natural’ candles.
Further Info
- Check out the 60 Minutes story on phthalates from May of 2010.
- An Environmental Working Group (EWG) study found that personal care products expose children to an average of 60 chemicals every day that they can breathe in or that absorb through their skin. EWG product testing, conducted in partnership with Health Care Without Harm and other members of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, showed phthalates in three-quarters of 72 name-brand products tested.
- If you’re curious to know what toxins may be in your body products, check out the Environmental Working Group’s project, Skin Deep
- Read this article by The Environmental Working Group - and this one, too.
- Toxic Baby, by Penelope Jagessar Chaffer and her website for the movie
- Phthalates May Harm Newborn Girls’ Mental Development - Paul McRandle’s article for the NRDC’s Smarter Living blog.
- Read this study published in the scientific journal, Pediatrics
- OnEarth article, Baby, You Gotta Have Balls, by Laura Wright Treadway
- Campaign for Safe Cosmetics
