Phthalates are a class of chemicals used in many plastic and vinyl products to increase their malleability.
They have also been used in hundreds of personal care items and common household products.
“Phthalates had been used to make pacifiers, soft rattles, and teethers, but at the request of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, U.S. manufacturers have not used phthalates in those products since 1999,” says the U.S. Library of Medicine.
The National Toxicology Program reports that phthalates are a known-carcinogen.
“Current levels of seven phthalates studied by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences posed “minimal” concern for causing reproductive effects,” says the site.
However, some studies are said to disagree.
“A new study also revealed that women with higher levels of phthalates in their urine were more likely to have miscarriages between 5 and 13 weeks of pregnancy than those with lower levels,” says Dr. Mercola.
“A new study released by Columbia University finds that pregnant women should avoid phthalates, a common chemical used to make plastic pliable,” adds the news source ABC.
The news source reports that of the women tested, 80-percent of mothers exposed to phthalates were more likely to give birth to children with asthma as a result.
“The child has an almost 80 percent increased risk of developing the condition between the ages of 5 and 11, according to the findings,” says ABC.
“Even cosmetics with phthalates as an ingredient are a major cause of exposure for women,” they say.
Phthalates have also been studied by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other official sources for their endocrine-disrupting properties. Studies are still being done to determine how harmful pthalates really are. In the meantime, government officials have labeled this chemical class as mildly harmful in large quantities.
They can be found in the following products:
You can find Phthalate measurements for companies such as: White Rain, Tresemme, Burt’s Bees and others at the FDA’s official website.
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