About Phthalates

Phthalates are a group of chemicals that are used in the manufacture of plastics as plasticizers. They are added to plastics to make them last longer and/or make other plastics more flexible. They are found in many products including children's toys, personal care products, wood finishes, medical devices and vinyl flooring.

Considerations

• People are regularly exposed to phthalates by using products that contain the chemicals, breathing phthalate contaminated air, being treated with phthalate containing equipment and/or living in close proximity to a manufacturing plant that uses phthalates. Women have a higher rate of exposure to phthalates as they are found in cosmetic products (they make nail polish less brittle and reduce stiffness in hair sprays), deodorants and fragrances that women use on a daily basis. PVC medical devices are also a source of phthalates.

Effects

• Effects of exposure to phthalates as a group are not really fully understood. However, exposure to specific phthalates such as di-nibutyl phthalate has been shown to affect the developmental and reproductive systems. The National Toxicology Program listed another phthalate, Di-(2-ethyhexyl) phthalate as a compound that is "reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen". This chemical has been implicated in problems in the development of the male reproductive system. Di-(2-ethyhexyl) has been used in breathing tubes for newborn infants and has shown to affect the development of the male reproductive system. Generally speaking, health effects are dependent on the amount an individual is exposed to, the type of phthalate and the age or timing of the exposure.

Features

• There are tests available that can determine if you have been exposed to particular phthalates; they tests either your blood for the phthalate or your urine for metabolites. The structure of the more commonly used phthalate plasticizers is basically an ester (a phthalate group attached to an ester). Most are colorless liquids with a faint odor that are insoluble in water.

Prevention/Solution

• Phthalates become health issues when they come in contact with body fluids, which is why their use as blood bags and plastic medical tubing is being questioned. Once in the body, the phthalates are stored in fatty tissues, which implicate them as carcinogens. In a 1998 study conducted by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission concluded that only a few of the children who played with teethers or rattles that contained phthalates were at any exposure risk, mainly because of the quantity of chemical ingested. After further testing, 10 years later the Commission issued a ban on the sale of toys that contained certain phthalates, and national retailers like Wal-Mart and Toys r Us have already complied by pulling their phthalate containing toys off the shelf.

Significance

• According to the CDC, 5 percent of women in the childbearing age show levels of contamination of phthalates, especially DBP, which has been shown to disrupt normal development in male fetuses. It is still however too hard to tell if consumers should be really concerned about the use and exposure to phthalates because of the limited research and findings.

History

• Plasticizers have been in use since the mid 1800s with the addition of castor oil to cellulose nitrate. It was not until the early 1900s that phthalates were introduced as a less toxic alternative to the previous plasticizers used. As it turns out there is an ongoing debate as to the toxicity of phthalates and the dangers that they pose.