Tag: phthalate

  • Study Links High Phthalate Levels and Dining Out

    A study has reportedly found that Americans who consumed more restaurant, fast-food and cafeteria meals had phthalate levels up to 35 percent higher than those who ate out less frequently. Julia R. Varshavsky, et al., “Dietary sources of cumulative phthalate exposure among the U.S. general population in NHANES 2005-2014,” Environment International, March 29, 2018. The data…

  • Schumer Urges FDA to Investigate Phthalates in Food Packaging

    Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has sent a letter to Scott Gottlieb, commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), calling for an investigation into the use of phthalates in food and fast-food packaging. Citing a Journal of American Medicine Association Pediatrics report, Schumer argues that the health risks of phthalates are known but FDA…

  • Phthalate Exposure Allegedly Linked to Fast-Food Consumption

    A study has allegedly linked fast-food consumption to higher urinary phthalate-metabolite levels but not to increased bisphenol A (BPA) levels. Ami Zota, et al., “Recent Fast Food Consumption and Bisphenol A and Phthalates Exposures among the U.S. Population in NHANES, 2003–2010,” Environmental Health Perspectives, April 2016. Using 24-hour dietary recall data obtained from 8,877 participants…

  • Prenatal Phthalate Exposure Allegedly Linked to Lower IQ Scores

    A recent study has claimed that children born to women whose urinary phthalate levels during pregnancy were in the top quartile of their study cohort had lower intelligence-quotient (IQ) test scores at age 7 than their peers born to women in the quartile with the lowest exposure. Pam Factor-Litvak, et al., “Persistent Associations between Maternal…

  • Phthalates Allegedly Associated with Increased Stress Markers During Pregnancy

    A new study has purportedly found that “urinary phthalate metabolites were associated with increased oxidative stress biomarkers” in a population of 482 pregnant women. Kelly Ferguson, et al., “Urinary Phthalate Metabolites and Biomarkers of Oxidative Stress in Pregnant Women: A Repeated Measures Analysis,” Environmental Health Perspectives, November 2014. In addition to measuring nine phthalate metabolites at…

  • EPA Flags BPA, Phthalates for Chemical Assessment

    The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) has updated its Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Work Plan for Chemical Assessments to include bisphenol A (BPA), seven phthalates and 15 other substances. Designed to help the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics identify chemicals with “the highest potential for exposure and hazard,” the TSCA Work Plan in 2012 flagged 83…

  • EPA to Discuss Diisononyl Phthalate at Upcoming ISIS Meeting

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has published preliminary materials for the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) toxicological review of diisononyl phthalate (DINP), a plasticizer used in food-contact materials.Slated for discussion at the IRIS Bimonthly Public Science Meeting to be held October 29-30, 2014, in Arlington, Virginia, the preliminary materials include (i) “a planning and…

  • Danish Environment Ministry Seeks EU Limits on Phthalates

    The Danish Ministry of the Environment has stated that the government intends to pressure the European Commission to phase out certain phthalates—including BBP, DEHP, DBP, and DIBP, which are used to soften plastics such as food containers—after the European Court of Justice found that Denmark’s proposed ban on them conflicts with EU regulations. Environment Minister…