Health Canada wants to ban six types of phthalates, the so-called “rubber duck” chemical, from children's toys, but consumers interested in avoiding the compound in other products will find that a nearly impossible task.
Phthalates are in foods, plastic piping, cosmetics, sewage and, perhaps surprisingly, in trace concentrations in people who've been tested for the chemical.
Experts who have studied phthalates, a man-made substance added to plastic to make it more pliable and to fragrances in personal care products, say they are widely used and extremely difficult to avoid – even for an attentive consumer. What is more, phthalates are often not listed as ingredients in products, making it harder to shop with an aim to avoid the compound.
“We know that phthalate exposures are ubiquitous in the population,” says Ted Schettler, science director at Science and Environmental Health Network, an Iowa-based conservation advocacy group.
Scientists are worried about the chemical because it is able to reduce the production of testosterone, the hormone that helps regulate male development.
Mr. Schettler wrote a science journal article in 2005 looking at phthalates in consumer goods and found them in a bewildering list of items.
They were in bugs sprays, children's glow sticks, dentures, clothing, automobiles (they are part of the distinctive chemically odour of new cars) and polyvinyl chloride products, the plastic often used in building materials such as pipes.
He also said they're frequently found in foods, for reasons that are not clear. He speculated that dairy products may sometimes contain traces of the chemical that is washed off the flexible piping farmers use to collect milk.
Phthalates (pronounced THA-lates) are mixed into plastics and, because they're not chemically bound up in materials, are susceptible to leaching out. This means they can easily spread into the broader environment and within homes. They have been detected in household dust, apparently shed from consumer products within the home.
“We really have contaminated our world with environmental chemicals, so it shouldn't surprise us that we find [phthalates]” so frequently, Mr. Schettler said in an interview.
A study published last year found vinyl shower curtains often contain high levels. As much as 39 per cent of one brand was made up of a phthalate known as DINP, a type Health Canada announced on Saturday it wants out of children's toys.
Health Canada says it acted because of concern that certain phthalates “are hazardous to reproduction and development,” among other health impacts. It said the measure would protect young children, who could inadvertently ingest phthalates by chewing or sucking on toys.
Mr. Schettler, while praising Health Canada's toy ban, said it didn't go far enough because exposures to chemicals that disrupt hormones are most dangerous during fetal development. Pregnant women were not covered by Health Canada's proposed measurers. The federal agency was not immediately able to respond to questions on why it didn't include restrictions on products used by adults.
The American Chemistry Council, an Arlington, Va.-based trade group representing phthalate manufacturers, rejected concerns about the chemical.
It said advanced testing methods are able to detect phthalates in many substances, including foods, and in blood and urine. “The important thing is that average phthalates exposures are far below levels of concern as set by U.S. federal agencies,” said Chris Bryant, managing director at the council.
Even so, when testing of phthalates in people is conducted, researchers usually find almost everyone carries the chemicals, including babies. A study issued last year by a researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle tested 163 U.S. babies for the chemicals, and found them in every child.
Toronto environmentalist Rick Smith recently co-wrote a book, Slow Death by Rubber Duc k , in which he recounted how he was able to manipulate his levels of phthalates by varying his use of personal care items, such as shampoos, shaving creams and deodorants.
For three days, he avoided all contact with plastics, didn't shower and ate organic food, at which point he point he had his urine measured for phthalates. Even after trying to avoid the chemical, he clocked in with low levels of five different types.
But after he exposed himself to personal care products, one of the types of phthalates rocketed upward by 22 times.
“I think it's virtually impossible to get phthalate levels to zero,” he said of the experience.
None of the personal care ingredients had phthalates on their labels, although Mr. Smith suspects the compound was included as an ingredient in perfumes or fragrances.
“I think it's a major affront to the rights of consumers that phthalates are not required to be disclosed on product packaging,” he said.
Because phthalates are excreted rapidly through urine, with more than half of any exposure removed from a person's body in less than 24 hours, Mr. Smith said his readings would have returned to low levels very quickly.
