Phthalates – how plastic are you?
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All UK cosmetics and household products, and their ingredients, must be safety tested. The legislation includes a list of 769 chemicals which may not be included in cosmetics and it sets out maximum concentrations of 56 chemicals which can be used as preservatives, together with other restrictions on their use.
Since June 2007, companies which import or manufacture chemicals, including those used in cosmetics and household products, have been required to provide safety data on all their products, together with an assessment of risk, in order to register them under an EU-wide system for testing the effects of chemicals on human health and the environment.
It's hard to avoid coming in contact with phthalates because they are in everything from credit cards to plastic bags, car interiors to shower curtains. They make plastic flexible. But you may prefer to avoid them in products you put on your body, such as shampoos, moisturisers, nail polishes and hair sprays. The most commonly used phthalate to look out for is DEHP (di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate).
Concerns about the health risks of phthalates have centred on exposure to them in the womb. Animal studies have shown that male rats exposed to high levels of phthalates before they were born were more likely to have abnormal testes. It appears that, rather than mimicking hormones, like parabens, phthlates suppress testosterone production by the fetal testes. There have also been suggestions that girls exposed to high levels of phthalates in the womb may reach puberty prematurely. But there is, as yet, no direct link between phthalate exposure and abnormal development or fertility problems in humans.
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