Phthalates in everything, a hidden epidemic!

 

Introduction Video

Phthalates: What Are They and Where Are They Found?

Phthalates are chemical compounds that are mainly used to make plastics more flexible and durable. Phthalates can be found in most products that have contact with plastics during producing, packaging, or delivering (Wang & Qian, 2021). They are even present in many products that are used such as shampoos, hair care products and more. This is problematic since they have short half lives in live organism tissues, but if exposed chronically their effects can become very problematic.

                                Possible routes of exposure (Wang & Qian, 2021)

Main Health Risks of Phthalates

• Hormone disruption: Phthalates are known endocrine disruptors that interfere with many sex hormones in the body and in particular androgens. This has negative effects on both males and females, but presents differently in both with reduced testosterone being the main symptom (Meeker & Ferguson, 2014).

• Infertility: As potent anti androgen endocrine disruptors, long term exposure to Phthalates are known to contribute to infertility through many means, particularly affecting progression of pregnancy, altering sperm morphology, lowering sperm count, and even affecting ovarian reserve in women (Tian et al., 2024).

• Developmental problems from prenatal exposure: If pregnancy does occur, phthalate exposure can still lead to adverse effects in the fetus and set them up for detrimental effects later in life. For example, one measure as a predictor of reproductive health is Anogenital distance (AGD) which is used as a marker of in-utero exposure to androgenic and anti-androgenic hormones, and it was found that Phthalate exposure altered this. (Cajachagua-Torres)

• Metabolic/Obesity risk: Based on their sex hormone modulation Phthalates can affect body fat distribution as well as have been found to activate PPARγ which promotes cells to turn into mature fat cells which increase the bodies capacity to store fat (Peng et al., 2023).

• Allergies and Asthma Prevalence: Phthalates have been found to remodel bronchial cells and to increase their proliferation leading to altered lung morphology (Duh et al., 2023). The study investigated multiple Phthalate metabolites and found such a strong correlation that each 10-fold increase in the level of certain phthalate metabolites was correspondingly associated with a 4.2-5.8 fold risk of contracting asthma depending on the specific metabolite (Duh et al., 2023).

 Phthalate concentration decreases sperm motility and activity (Amjad et al., 2021)

Why is this a cause for concern?

All of the health risks associated with Phthalate exposure are only growing and Phthalates are showing a clear cause for inducing these negative effects and contributing to these problems. Autoimmune conditions such as asthma, obesity, infertility, and many more chronic disease are all on the rise. Specifically, infertility is the main problem that is growing and any developed countries are starting to have a huge problem in regards to declining birth rates. These are associated with differing factors such as different social norms as well, but this does not help the issue nonetheless. For example, it was found that 8–12% of couples in 2015 worldwide were infertile or noticeable difficulty conceiving, and 6.7% of females were infertile with male sperm concentration having decreased on average by 32.5% over the last 50 years (Hlisníková et al., 2020). If we want to fix all these issues we need to start addressing environmental concerns because not much else is changing as of late, but plastics are becoming so much more common and Phthalates and their metabolites are becoming ever more present in the environment with so many exposure routes.

Infertility is a growing problem and Phthalate exposure is increasingly likely to contribute to this epidemic

Ways to Reduce Exposure to Phthalates

There are many ways to reduce your exposure and to at least lower the dosage of how much phthalates you are exposed to.

1. Research and Read Labels: This is the most important for personal protection as many products can contain this so try your best to find ones that do not use Phthalates

2. Limiting plastic: In general reducing exposure to plastic is the easiest way to reduce exposure to phthalates and always trying to opt for other materials is generally better.

3. Don't heat food with plastic and limit processed food consumption: Higher temperatures can accelerate leeching of phthalates from plastic into food and processed foods that sit in plastic for long periods of time can accumulate phthalates as well so reducing both is healthy from a nutritious diet perspective and to reduce exposure to phthalates.

4. Share knowledge and awareness with others: As you have already read this blog post and know the dangers of phthalates, you should spread this knowledge with others!

Regulation and Advocacy

The Government is becoming aware of all of this and reducing Phthalates in products, but considering plastics are being generated so much and there are so many different phthalate metabolites it is hard to find evidence for all of them to inspire real change often. It is up to the consumer and us as individuals to make conscious choices and also to advocate for more research and knowledge to be gained on this topic in order to address all these health impediments that are affecting people. 

 

                                                        Real change starts with us!

Thank you, now go and spread the word!

References

Wang, Y., & Qian, H. (2021, May 18). Phthalates and their impacts on human health. Healthcare, 9(5), Article 603. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9050603

Tian, X., Qin, B., Yang, L., Li, H., & Zhou, W. (2024). Association of phthalate exposure with reproductive outcomes among infertile couples undergoing in vitro fertilization: A systematic review. Environmental research, 252(Pt 2), 118825. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2024.118825

Meeker, J. D., & Ferguson, K. K. (2014). Urinary phthalate metabolites are associated with decreased serum testosterone in men, women, and children from NHANES 2011-2012. The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism, 99(11), 4346–4352. https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2014-2555

Hlisníková, H., Petrovičová, I., Kolena, B., Šidlovská, M., & Sirotkin, A. (2020). Effects and Mechanisms of Phthalates' Action on Reproductive Processes and Reproductive Health: A Literature Review. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(18), 6811. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186811

Peng, M. Q., Karvonen-Gutierrez, C. A., Herman, W. H., Mukherjee, B., & Park, S. K. (2023). Phthalate exposure is associated with more rapid body fat gain in midlife women: The Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN) Multi-Pollutant Study. Environmental research, 216(Pt 3), 114685. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2022.114685

Cajachagua-Torres, K. N., Salvi, N. B., Seok, E., Wang, Y., Liu, M., Kannan, K., Kahn, L. G., Trasande, L., & Ghassabian, A. (2025). Prenatal phthalate exposure and anogenital distance in infants at 12 months. Environment international, 199, 109472. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2025.109472

Duh, T. H., Yang, C. J., Lee, C. H., & Ko, Y. C. (2023). A Study of the Relationship between Phthalate Exposure and the Occurrence of Adult Asthma in Taiwan. Molecules (Basel, Switzerland), 28(13), 5230. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules28135230

Amjad, S., Rahman, M. S., Pang, W.-K., Ryu, D.-Y., Adegoke, E. O., Park, Y.-J., & Pang, M.-G. (2021). Effects of phthalates on the functions and fertility of mouse spermatozoa. Toxicology, 454, Article 152746. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tox.2021.152746