In an article published January 15, 2014 on the online news platform Environmental Health News, staff writer Lindsey Konkel reports on a study finding a reduction in exposure to the three plasticizers already banned from toys and cosmetics, but rises in worrisome alternative substances. In the study published on January 15, 2013 in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Environmental Health Perspectives, researchers from the University of San Francisco, U.S. analyzed urinary phthalate levels of more than 11 000 participants of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2001-2010) (Zota et al. 2014). They observed a reduction in urinary levels of metabolites of butylbenzyl phthalate (BBP), di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP), and di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), but increases in metabolites of other phthalates. According to Ami Zota, lead author of the study, this means that whilst legal interventions have worked, they may have consequences not predicted by legislators. According to the authors, levels of diisononyl phthalate (DiNP), di-n-octylphthalate (DnOP) and diisodecyl phthalate (DiDP) rose by 149, 25 and 15%, respectively. In the article published in Environmental Health News Janet Nudelman, co-founder of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, expresses concerns that manufacturers may not necessarily be replacing toxic phthalates with safer alternatives.
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Lindsey Konkel (January 15, 2014). “Good news/bad news: Some phthalates down, some up.” Environmental Health News.
Zota, A. et al. (2014). “Temporal Trends in Phthalate Exposures: Findings from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2001–2010.” Environmental Health Perspectives (published online January 15, 2013).
