January 31, 2003
The new and expanded report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on human exposure to environmental chemicals confirms the findings in the first report—median exposures to phthalates are far below levels that could be expected to cause adverse health effects in humans.
"The data from the CDC report reinforce what the first CDC report told us—that activist attacks on the use of phthalates in cosmetics and other products are unsupported by science," said Marian Stanley, manager of the Phthalate Esters Panel. "We fully support this pioneering work by the CDC. It makes it possible for consumers to base their decisions about our products on scientific evidence, not on political activism."
The expanded study confirms that the average doses of all the measured phthalates are well below the safety levels established by government regulatory agencies—levels that already have a built-in safety factor of 100 to 1,000. While there are variations among the various groups measured, even the highest levels reported by the CDC—the so-called 95th percentile—equate to exposures well below safety levels.
The CDC data show that the median exposure to dibutyl phthalate (DBP), a phthalate found in small quantities in personal care products, is 100 times below the very conservative safety levels set by regulators.
The exposure to phthalates widely used to impart flexibility to polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is miniscule.
"It is very reassuring that the CDC data validate the risk assessments already conducted by government, academics, and industry on phthalates," said Ms. Stanley. "Estimates of the gap between human exposure and the levels that have an effect on animals have turned out to be accurate, and even conservative in most instances. For those willing to look at the evidence, the news is very good."
Phthalates are among the most widely studied of all chemicals and have established a very strong safety profile over their 50 years in general use. There is no reliable evidence that any phthalate, which is used as intended, has ever caused a health problem for a human. Although very high doses of some phthalates administered to rodents over a lifetime can cause some health effects, the doses far exceed any level of exposure humans could likely experience in their everyday lives. And evidence is accumulating that primates, which include humans, are far less susceptible to those health effects, if they are susceptible at all.
