14 DAY TRIAL // A new paper in the journal Environmental Science & Technology documents the exposure of two different groups of people, i.e. babies and adult women, to a class of chemicals commonly found in personal care products.
The paper argues that, according to evidence at hand, infants and toddlers suffer about three times more exposure to chemical compounds known as parabens than adult women do.
EcoWatch details that, as part of their investigation, researchers collected and analyzed 170 samples of makeup, lotions, shampoos and other similar products.
20 of the products tested during this study were baby care ones.
In their paper, the researchers explain that, after studying these samples, they found that the personal care products they looked at contained a total of nine different chemical compounds known as phthalates and six different parabens.
These two classes of compounds are both used in personal care products to retain moisture and as preservatives, respectively.
The scientists say that, whereas phthalates concentrations were fairly low in all the personal care products that they tested, parabens concentrations were surprisingly elevated.
What's more, the researchers estimate than, on average, children's daily skin exposure to this class of chemical compounds is about three times higher than that of adult women.
“The calculated dermal intake of phthalates from PCPs was lower for infants and toddlers than for adult females. In contrast, dermal intake of parabens from PCPs by infants and toddlers was higher than that for adult females,” reads the Abstract for the paper in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
Furthermore, “The calculated maximum daily exposure dose of MeP, EtP, and PrP from PCPs ranged between 58.6 and 766 μg/kg-bw/day for infants and toddlers, which was 3 times higher than that calculated for adult females.”
The good news is that the human body is well equipped to deal with these chemicals, meaning that it has little issues breaking them.
However, studies have shown that increased exposure to both parabens and phthalates can up a person's risk to develop reproductive issues or other health problems such as asthma or cancer.