American Chemistry Council's alert on phthalates

Remember that story we wrote about a month ago about the "new shower curtain smell"?

Vinyl shower curtains sold at major retailers across the country emit toxic chemicals that have been linked to serious health problems, according to a report released Thursday by a national environmental organization...

The study found that PVC shower curtains contained high concentrations of phthalates, which have been linked to reproductive effects, and varying concentrations of organotins, which are compounds based on tin and hydrocarbons. One of the curtains tested released measurable quantities of as many as 108 volatile organic compounds into the air, some of which persisted for nearly a month.

Well, back then the American Chemistry Council, a trade organization representing the chemical industry, issued a statement assuring the public that there was "no reliable evidence" that phthalates were harmful, linked to serious health problems, or even tied to the new smell.

This week, the council came out with a media alert about the phthalates, which they said are "commonly used in a wide variety of vinyl products to make them flexible and durable." The alert was "in response to inaccurate statements about phthalates that have been perpetuated in the news cycle in recent months." It also provided a list of plastic products in the U.S. that are "typically not made of vinyl (and thus are not made with phthalates)."

These include food packaging, baby bottles and baby bottle nipples, plastic water bottles, plastic food containers, and polyethylene terephthalate or PET (despite the name), according to the release. Plastic food wrap is apparently usually softened with plasticizers that are not phthalate esters, according to the group.

The American Chemistry Council is happy to answer your questions about phthalates and to provide more information about where phthalates are used.  Please contact us or visit www.phthalates.org for more information.

-- Tami Abdollah

Photo: A smattering of shower curtains -- some contain vinyl, others may not. Credit: Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[John Barlow]

I would like to see an article with "scientific" evidence that anyone should be frightened about shower curtins made with PVC and phthalates. So far you have only printed Greenpeace's outlandish statements. I've been using PVC shower cirtains all my life (65 years) with absolutely NO PROBLEMS. I DON'T TRUST GREENPEACE! Therefore I don't trust the info LA TIMES has printed. How about picking up a rebuttal by the Vinyl Institute and the EPA or a phthalate organization? Or contact Patric Moore (original Greenpeace organizer) and get his thoughts on this. Right now I only see SENSATIONALISM ... you know, getting ALL the FACTS is called R E P O R T I N G !

[xb]

People are commonly exposed to phthalates, and the majority of Americans tested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have metabolites of multiple phthalates in their urine. Diet is believed to be the main source of DEHP and other phthalates in the general population, although inhalational exposure is also significant.High doses of many phthalates have shown hormonal activity in rodent studies. Studies on rodents involving large amounts of phthalates have shown damage to the liver and testes and cause birth defects.[4] In addition, a recent British study showed that the phthalate di(n-butyl) phthalate (DBP) or its metabolite monobutyl phthalate (MBP) suppresses steroidogenesis by fetal-type Leydig cells in primates as in rodents.[5]

Initial rodent studies on carcinogenity indicated hepatocarcinogenity. Following this result, diethyl hexyl phthalate was listed as a possible carcinogen by IARC, EC and WHO. Later studies on primates showed that the mechanism was specific to rodents - humans are resistant to the effect.[6] The carcinogen classification was subsequently withdrawn.

In 2004, a joint Swedish-Danish research team found a very strong link between allergies in children and the phthalates DEHP and BBzP.[7] The first systematic review of the evidence relating phthalates to asthma found evidence of association between phthalates in the home and asthma, but this evidence was limited by imprecise data on exact levels of exposure. Phthalates migrate from PVC plastics and into the dust, where they may be inhaled.[8]

A 2005 study by Swan et al. reported that human phthalate exposure during pregnancy resulted in decreased anogenital distance among baby boys later born, a change that in rodents exposed to phthalates is associated with genital abnormalities. In this study urine samples were collected from pregnant women in four United States cities. All were found to have levels of phthalate residues in their urine. Upon birth of the children whose mother's urine had been previously measured, the genital features and anogenital distance were measured and correlated with the residue levels in the mother's urine. Boys born to mothers with the highest levels of phthalates were seven times more likely to have a shortened anogenital distance.[9] While anogenital distance is routinely used as a measure of fetal exposure to endocrine disruptors in animals,[10] the Swan study is one of only 5 studies in which the parameter has been assessed in humans.[11] Another of these studies states that "Whether anogenital distance measurements in humans relate to clinically important outcomes, however, remains to be determined,"[12] and a National Toxicology Program expert panel concluded that anogenital distance is a "'novel index' whose relevance in humans 'has not been established,'" and that there is "insufficient evidence in humans" that DEHP causes harm.[13] Still, the Swan study has been widely cited, and "suggest[s] that male reproductive development in humans could be affected by prenatal exposure to environmentally relevant levels of phthalates."[14]

In addition, in a 2004 study by the Children's National Medical Center and The George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C, it was found that "adolescents exposed to significant quantities of DEHP as neonates showed no significant adverse effects on their physical growth and pubertal maturity."[15]There was no correlation between heightened residue levels and smaller penis sizes. It should be noted, however, that this study examined children exposed intravenously to phthalate diester, and intravenous phthalate diester exposure results in relatively little metabolic conversion of the relatively nontoxic phthalate diester to its toxic metabolite (phthalate monoester).[16]

The authors of a study of Finnish boys with undescended testis hypothesized, based on their findings, that exposure to a combination of phthalates and anti-androgenic pesticides may have contributed to their condition.[17]

In 2007, a cross-sectional study of U.S. males conducted by researchers at Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry concluded that urine concentrations of four phthalate metabolites correlate with waist size and three phthalate metabolites correlate with the cellular resistance to insulin, a precursor to Type II diabetes. The authors note the need for follow-up longitudinal studies,[18] as waist size is known to correlate with insulin resistance.

Research on phthalates in the environment published in 2008 reported that baby care products containing phthalates are source of exposure for infants. The authors "observed that reported use of infant lotion, infant powder, and infant shampoo were associated with increased infant urine concentrations of [phthalate metabolites], and this association is strongest in younger infants. These findings suggest that dermal exposures may contribute significantly to phthalate body burden in this population." Though they did not examine health outcomes, they noted that "Young infants are more vulnerable to the potential adverse effects of phthalates given their increased dosage per unit body surface area, metabolic capabilities, and developing endocrine and reproductive systems."[19]

Barlow,it's not hard with the internet to do a little research yourself

[Kate Mills]

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[Chem 101]

The info listed by John Barlow has to do with DEHP while the material used in shower curtains and commented on by the American Chemistry Council is DINP. Do a quick google search on phthalates and American Chemistry Council and you will find the info quoted in the article above.