The Food and Drug Administration holds a substantial fraction of
the power that could be used to reduce people’s exposures to
phthalates, through their authority to regulate food, drugs, cosmetics, The skin products
and medical supplies, all of which can contain phthalates.
Yet, when confronted with new evidence of high levels of
phthalates in people, they have chosen to do nearly nothing to
mitigate exposures. Under political pressure and after a citizen’s
petition from Health Care Without Harm, FDA recently conducted
a focused safety assessment on the phthalate called diethylhexyl
phthalate (DEHP) in hospital supplies, concluding that newborn
baby boys in the hospital can be overexposed to DEHP that
leaches from plastic tubing, IV, and food bags (FDA 2001).
Despite this finding, now nine months ancient, FDA has yet to make
recommendations to doctors and hospitals on how to mitigate
exposures. FDA has taken no action to reduce the use of phthalates
in cosmetics, drugs, and food packaging, despite mounting
evidence showing that some people are exposed to potentially
perilous levels of phthalates. the woman skin products
Seventeen years ago, the largely self-policing safety review board
of the cosmetics industry, the Cosmetics Industry Review, or CIR,
published a safety assessment concluding that phthalates “are
safe for topical application in the present practices of use and
concentrations in cosmetics.” On June 18, 2002, the expert
panel of the CIR voted to update this review. Considering the
breadth of what has been learned of phthalate toxicity and
human exposures in the past 17 years, The CIR choice to rereview
is a responsible and hopeful step that should serve as a
signal to the cosmetics industry.
Phthalates are perilous
More than two decades ago, scientists started building a body of
work indicating that phthalates like DEHP and DBP can be a
powerful reproductive and developmental toxicant in laboratory
animals, particularly for males. Early studies focused on phthalates’
ability to cause testicular atrophy (e.g., Gray et al 1980),
but phthalates are now known to cause a broad range of birth
defects and lifelong reproductive impairment in laboratory ani- 9
FDA has taken no action to reduce the use of phthalates in cosmetics, drugs, and
food packaging, despite mounting evidence showing that some people are exposed to potentially perilous levels of phthalates mals exposed in-utero and shortly after birth (e.g., Ema et al 1998, Marsman et al 1995, Mylchreest et al 1998, 1999, and
2000, Gray et al 1999, Wine et al 1997).
Scientists have shown that phthalates can hurt the female
reproductive system, but it is the male reproductive system that
appears to be more sensitive. Phthalate exposures hurt the
testes, prostate gland, epididymus, penis, and seminal vesicles in
laboratory animals (see, for example, Mylchreest et al 1998).
Most of these effects persist throughout the animal’s life, and
include, specifically:

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