Phthalate Levels in Baby Shampoos Jeopardize Infant Reproductive Health

Phthalate Levels and Your Baby Care Products

What are phthalates?

Phthalates are chemical substances that are next to impossible to pronounce, yet nonetheless of great importance to the makers of anything involving plastic. In simplest terms, phthalates added to any hard plastic compound will turn it into a soft, flexible plastic substance without reducing the product's integrity and thus ability to contain things or keep things out.

Because of their derivation from the more odiferous benzene-1,2-dicarboxylic acid, it is not uncommon to see phthalates in various incarnations in saccharin, common household dyes and paints, perfumes, and also maintenance products that rely on elasticity.

And why are they in the news?

This of course gives rise to the question why such components - which appear to have been part and parcel of not only the plastic manufacturers' arsenal of substances, but also have been a staple in the production of personal care products - are suddenly in the crosshairs of concerned parents and pediatricians alike. Serena Gordon quotes Jonathan Weinkle, M.D., of the University of Pittsburgh's Cancer Institute's Center for Environmental Oncology as stating that reputable research suggests harmful properties of phthalates are affecting living organisms.

At issue are the July 2006 study results - stemming from research conducted by the MRC Human Reproductive Sciences Unit at the Center for Reproductive Biology, Queen's Medical Research Institute in Edinburgh, United Kingdom - that tracked the effects of phthalates on fetal rats. Researchers were alarmed when testosterone levels and other hormonal substances reacted adversely to the exposure to phthalates; but the alarm quickly changed to grave concern when animal experiments on marmosets showcased that newborns of that species also evidence a change in testosterone levels when exposed to the chemicals.