SaferChemicals.org
We need to do a lot more than drain the swamp in Washington! It is not just politically elected people that are not getting anything done. We have a rather large LAKE of "paid committees" full of experts from every University as well as researchers flown in from every corner of the world sitting around a table reading summaries of research telling us phthalates are deadly to the developing fetus, infant, toddler, child, teen and adult.
Phthalates are hormone disrupters that have been painfully deliberated since 2011, and in 2014 a 600 page REPORT was presented to U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Let me sum this up, the researchers saw all 5 toxic metabolites in maternal blood, & urine, and infant blood, and cord blood.
The CHAP report states that “phthalates cause a wide range of toxicities in experimental animals but the one considered of greatest concern for purposes of this report is a syndrome indicative of androgen insufficiency in fetal life, what is referred to in rats as the phthalate syndrome, caused by exposure of pregnant dams to certain phthalates”. It is unclear how recommendations can be made with respect to children’s toys and child care articles when the toxicity endpoint is for non-users of those products (i.e., pregnant women, fetuses, and neonates.
Where are phthalates and parabens found?
Phthalates, also called "plasticizers", are found in numerous everyday products such as:
Just take a quick scan of this video of scholars sitting around a Washington meeting with all their titles discussing phthalate exposure and the lifelong effects comprehensively, and nothing happened! As a health care provider I could just scream!
How about Congress demand that the folks get paid by our tax dollars such as the FDA actually READ the Expert REPORTS. We cannot stop cancer or even treat cancer to win this battle if hormones are messed up in the 9 months of pregnancy or during the child's early years.
Kraft is America’s biggest cheese brand by far. But most people don’t know that some of Kraft's cheese product contain toxic chemicals called phthalates. In fact, phthalates were found in almost all of the cheese product items the Safe Chemicals Healthy Families tested. Just check out this New York Times article.
The Food and Drug Administration did NOT ban their presence in foods, even though the 2014 report to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) urged federal agencies to assess risks “with a view to supporting risk management steps.” The report concluded that food, drugs and beverages, and not toys, were the primary source of exposure to phthalates.
"These studies provide the first human data linking prenatal phthalate exposure (specifically DEP, DBP and DEHP) with antiandrogenic effects in male offspring. These results have important relevance to the hypothesized testicular dysgenesis syndrome (TDS) in humans. Skakkebaek et al. (2001) hypothesized that poor semen quality, testis cancer, cryptorchidism, and hypospadias were symptoms of an underlying entity referred to as TDS, which had its origins during fetal life."
"They further hypothesized that environmental chemicals, specifically endocrine disruptors, played an important role in the etiology of TDS through disruption of embryonal programming and gonadal development during fetal life. Currently, in humans, the 29 evidence on the potential effects of phthalates during fetal development is limited to shortened AGD. Based on the human data on gestational exposure and reduced AGD, exposure to DEP, DBP and DEHP metabolites should be reduced. Further studies are needed to determine whether fetal exposure to phthalates is associated with other endpoints (i.e., reproductive tract malformations and altered semen quality)."
Why assess phthalate and paraben levels?
Exposure to phthalates and parabens is more common than you may realize. Phthalates and parabens are often classified as xenoestrogens, foreign compounds in the body functioning as endocrine disruptors by binding specifically to estrogen receptors.
Endocrine disruptors are associated with diseases such as:
Phthalates are hormone disrupters that have been painfully deliberated since 2011, and in 2014 a 600 page REPORT was presented to U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Let me sum this up, the researchers saw all 5 toxic metabolites in maternal blood, & urine, and infant blood, and cord blood.
The CHAP report states that “phthalates cause a wide range of toxicities in experimental animals but the one considered of greatest concern for purposes of this report is a syndrome indicative of androgen insufficiency in fetal life, what is referred to in rats as the phthalate syndrome, caused by exposure of pregnant dams to certain phthalates”. It is unclear how recommendations can be made with respect to children’s toys and child care articles when the toxicity endpoint is for non-users of those products (i.e., pregnant women, fetuses, and neonates.
Where are phthalates and parabens found?
Phthalates, also called "plasticizers", are found in numerous everyday products such as:
- Children's toys
- Cosmetics
- Cleaning products
- Air fresheners
- Perfumes
- Furniture
- Vinyl flooring
- Plastic food containers
- Medical products
Just take a quick scan of this video of scholars sitting around a Washington meeting with all their titles discussing phthalate exposure and the lifelong effects comprehensively, and nothing happened! As a health care provider I could just scream!
How about Congress demand that the folks get paid by our tax dollars such as the FDA actually READ the Expert REPORTS. We cannot stop cancer or even treat cancer to win this battle if hormones are messed up in the 9 months of pregnancy or during the child's early years.
Kraft is America’s biggest cheese brand by far. But most people don’t know that some of Kraft's cheese product contain toxic chemicals called phthalates. In fact, phthalates were found in almost all of the cheese product items the Safe Chemicals Healthy Families tested. Just check out this New York Times article.
The Food and Drug Administration did NOT ban their presence in foods, even though the 2014 report to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) urged federal agencies to assess risks “with a view to supporting risk management steps.” The report concluded that food, drugs and beverages, and not toys, were the primary source of exposure to phthalates.
"These studies provide the first human data linking prenatal phthalate exposure (specifically DEP, DBP and DEHP) with antiandrogenic effects in male offspring. These results have important relevance to the hypothesized testicular dysgenesis syndrome (TDS) in humans. Skakkebaek et al. (2001) hypothesized that poor semen quality, testis cancer, cryptorchidism, and hypospadias were symptoms of an underlying entity referred to as TDS, which had its origins during fetal life."
"They further hypothesized that environmental chemicals, specifically endocrine disruptors, played an important role in the etiology of TDS through disruption of embryonal programming and gonadal development during fetal life. Currently, in humans, the 29 evidence on the potential effects of phthalates during fetal development is limited to shortened AGD. Based on the human data on gestational exposure and reduced AGD, exposure to DEP, DBP and DEHP metabolites should be reduced. Further studies are needed to determine whether fetal exposure to phthalates is associated with other endpoints (i.e., reproductive tract malformations and altered semen quality)."
- CPSC submits their budget to Congress, so We The People, are paying for all these task force meetings! The FDA did not ban phthalates since the 2011 research was presented and we continue to pay for all those salaries as they sit around for years discussing phthalate research. Raise your voice and get involved being an advocate for your child. Sign the petition here!
- We may feel powerless draining the polluted LAKE in Washington, however, we can drain our own body swamp of phthalates. Click Here to see what testing you can have done.
Why assess phthalate and paraben levels?
Exposure to phthalates and parabens is more common than you may realize. Phthalates and parabens are often classified as xenoestrogens, foreign compounds in the body functioning as endocrine disruptors by binding specifically to estrogen receptors.
Endocrine disruptors are associated with diseases such as:
- Endometriosis
- Infertility
- Breast cancer
- Ovarian cancer
- Prostate cancer
- Testicular cancer
- Decreased sperm count
- Liver toxicity
- Immune effects such as allergies and asthma
- Reproductive toxicity
- Pubertal development
Blessings,
Dr. Carly Willeford, DNP, MS, FNP,
