Children and Phthalates - What's the Big Deal ?
Forever chemicals. It's such a scary sounding name that a lot of people honestly don't want to know. Because knowing might require us to change the way we do things, change what we buy or to consider the unintended consequences of our actions in the past.
Parents are faced with an unimaginable range of choices and decisions, many of which require more knowledge and thought than most of us can muster even on a good day. And so we rationalize it away. We drank out of the garden hose and survived, right? We all ate the red M&Ms. Bodies are designed to detox naturally - those few chemicals will get excreted one way or another, right?
And then someone mentions phthalates - something few of us can spell, let alone pronounce.
Phthalates are what we call "forever chemicals".
So the chemicals themselves have a short half-life, meaning they are broken down in the body into smaller chemicals, which the studies call metabolites. The chemicals ARE partly-mostly excreted, but what's left behind does untold harm, particularly in developing children.
So phthalates are found in plastics and plastic products. But also primarily in products which are artificially fragranced.
"Aromatic products contain a complex mixture of chemicals such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), limonene, alpha-pinene, beta-pinene, ethanol, acetone, acetaldehyde, etc Phthalates such as diethyl phthalate (DEP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), dimethyl phthalate (DMP), and diisobutyl phthalate (DiBP) in deodorants, shampoos, soaps, cosmetics, nail polishes and parabens, among others. Methyl paraben (MP), butyl paraben (BP), ethyl paraben (EP), and propyl paraben (PP) are used as fungicides, bactericides, and preservatives in cosmetics, perfumes and deodorants. Diethyl phthalate is a chemical used to make perfumes last longer. The U.S. Clean Water Act lists it as a toxic and priority pollutant. [Source].
"Complications of using perfume (containing phthalates) include neuropathy (depression, autism), neoplasms (breast cancer, prostate cancer), effects on the liver, migraine headaches, asthma attacks, mucosal symptoms (watery or red eyes, sneezing), neurological problems (dizziness, convulsions, headache, fainting, imbalance), respiratory (cough, shortness of breath), skin (skin rash, urticaria, redness of the skin, skin tingling, dermatitis), immune system (swollen lymph nodes, fever, fatigue), gastrointestinal tract (nausea, bloating, diarrhea) and cardiovascular (rapid or irregular heartbeat, tremors, chest discomfort). About 75% of people with shortness of breath have experienced asthma attacks caused by perfumes. Also, risk of asthma and high IgE serum levels were increased in the children who were exposed to phthalates during pregnancy. Furthermore, there are some concerns about the effect of diethyl phthalate on male fertility; so this group should avoid using perfume products that contain large amounts of diethyl phthalate. Triclosan and some parabens have significant effect on the spread of cancer and triclosan can disrupt thyroid function." [Source]
We want to believe that all this science is super new and that governments around the world would have made these products illegal had they known, right? Sadly, wrong. Phthalates and their negative effects on health are widely studied and the results peer reviewed, and published. For decades now.
"Human epidemiological studies have shown a significant association between phthalates exposures and adverse reproductive outcomes in both women and men, for instance, type II diabetes and insulin resistance, overweight/obesity, allergy and asthma." [Source]
"When it comes to the impacts on children, epidemiological studies about phthalates toxicity focused on pregnancy outcomes, genital development, semen quality, precocious puberty, thyroid function, respiratory symptoms, and neurodevelopment .
"When it comes to the impacts on children, epidemiological studies about phthalates toxicity focused on pregnancy outcomes, genital development, semen quality, precocious puberty, thyroid function, respiratory symptoms, and neurodevelopment .
Among the epidemiological studies, it was revealed that exposure to phthalates adversely affected the level of reproductive hormones (luteinizing hormone, free testosterone, sex hormone-binding globulin), anogenital distance, and thyroid function. Altered thyroid function is found to be associated with thyroid cancer. A recent Chinese study concluded that phthalates exposure is related to the disrupted arginine and proline metabolism, resulting in the development of overweight and obesity among school-age children. A 20-year birth cohort study found that prenatal phthalates exposure is negatively associated with height and weight during infancy and positively associated with height during childhood. Another prospective study demonstrated that DiDP is associated with respiratory system health among boys aged under 5 years. Phthalates have also been found to be linked to social impairment of children, the same as BPA. Previous studies have found that infants and toddlers when contacting polymer toys may be exposed to levels of 5 to 44 μg/kg bodyweight/day of DiNP. Later studies reported that around 20% of the children have been exposed to higher levels of phthalates than the cumulative TDI for DEHP and DBP. In 2013–2014, over half of tests for phthalates for persons aged over 6 years found positive results for DEHP, and almost all women and children had DBP metabolites, according to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)" [Source]
It's these metabolites of the original chemicals which remain behind, hence the term, "Forever chemicals".
Just to recap, How do our children get exposed to phthalates? Primarily through exposure to PLASTIC and to SYNTHETIC FRAGRANCES. The metabolites of these chemicals remain and are now found in the blood, tissues and organs of nearly all children.
So what can you do as a parent? Give up and pour more wine? Proactive parents and minimize harm and start identifying and removing products from their child's world which contain phthalates.
1. If the DEET in the synthetic pink mosquito repellent didn't make you anxious enough as a parent, the phthalates lurking behind the "pleasant floral fragrance" should! Replace that exposure with a natural insect repellent.
2. No more plastic toys your babies or toddlers can suck on - opt for safe, natural wooden toys or a simple spoon from the cutlery drawer.
3. Lotions and creams in plastic bottles with synthetic fragrances? Please don't. If your children have dry skin or rashes or eczema, please consider our Pure Baby Balm or our Intensive Skin Repair Balm.
4. Don't use plastic sippy cups!!
5. Avoid fragrant bath & shower gels that are clearly fragranced with fake things like Bubblegum, Green Apple or Strawberry.
6. Avoid artificial fragrance sprays or hangers in your car.
7. Don't use commercial baby wipes or hand wipes - these are commonly found to be very high in phthalate esters.
7. Don't use commercial baby wipes or hand wipes - these are commonly found to be very high in phthalate esters.
8. Avoid vinyl flooring - again studies show young children in regular contact with vinyl flooring showed considerably higher levels of phthalates in their blood and urine.
9. Most importantly, if you are pregnant, limit your own exposure to plastics and synthetic fragrances, as fragrance-phthalates in particular are inhaled and pass into your blood stream - and therefore your baby - very easily!!!
But most importantly? READ. Ask questions! We want our children to grow safely in a world without asthma, obesity, childhood cancers and a future of reproductive issues and impaired fertility. And that does start with us.
Yes, it's exhausting and requires a level or parenting skill our mothers never had or needed. And No, it's not fair.
Our children NEED us to step up and to be more proactive at keeping them safe, not just from monsters under the bed and speeding cars outside but from environmental threats in their day to day world.
It is up to us to make better and more natural choices for our children, every single day. And it starts with one choice, one decision, one purchase at a time.