Taking care of your body inside and out.

These next couple of articles are going to be about our health and well being. Our health is our most important asset that we have, and we should all make it important to learn about what it takes to obtain true health, and prevent against degenerative diseases.


"We have forgotten what it is like to die of old age in this world. Instead we die of man-made diseases that could and should be prevented. Statistics tell us that one in three Americans will die of cancer, one in three will prematurely die as a result of heart disease, and that most of the rest will die of either another form of disease or by accidental death. Only a few of us will die of old age."- Dr Myron Wentz, Microbiologist, entrepreneur, philanthropist.

• :: Phthalates

Ok, what is a phthalate? They are a group of extensively used compounds known technically as dialkyl or alkyl aryl esters of 1,2-benzenedicarboxylic acid. There are numerous phthalates with countless uses, and just as many toxicological traits.

Phthalates moved stealthily into prevalent use over the last several decades due to the many useful chemical properties. Now they are everywhere, not just in the products in which they are deliberately used, but in addition as contaminants in just about anything. It is used in so many things now, that about a billion pounds per year are produced worldwide.

You can find phthalates in softeners, plastics, oily substances in perfumes, additives to hairsprays, cosmetics, lubricants and wood finishers. Or how about that cool “new car smell”, which becomes especially overpowering after the car has been cooking in the sun for a while—that is in part due to the strong odor of phthalates volatilizing from a hot plastic dashboard. When evening comes, the fumes cool and condense to form an oily coating on the inside of the windshield.

According to trial statistics from the Center for Disease Control, an approximate 5% of women of reproductive age from the general population are polluted with 75% or more of the level of just one of the phthalates, DBP, that may begin to damage normal reproductive tract development in their baby boys.

Phthalates show numerous toxic effects in animal studies following chronic exposure or even after short-term exposures in particularly vulnerable organisms. These consequences include: damage to the liver, kidney, heart, and lungs as well as adverse effects on reproduction, development, and blood clotting. The outcome of human exposure to phthalates has not been well examined. Lengthy dormant periods between pertinent exposures, and understated effects that are hard to detect complicate and limit the small amount of existing epidemiological studies of phthalate impacts in humans. But these restrictions do not completely expound why the impacts of phthalates on humans have not been systematically investigated.

Here are a few personal care products that may contain phthalates and which kind:

• Powders- (DEP)
• Fragrances- (DEHP, BBP, DBP, DEP)
• Nail Polishes- (DBP)
• Hair Preparations- (BBP, DMP, DBP, DEP)
• Skin Creams- (DEP)
• Deodorants- (DBP, DEP)
• Aftershaves- (DEP)

In August of 2000, scientists at the Department of Chemistry, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico discovered a link between exposure to DEHP and premature breast development in young girls.

In 2003, a study was done by scientists from the Centers for Disease Control, Harvard School of Public Health, the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, that stated, “men with higher phthalate levels have reduced sperm counts, lower sperm motility and more deformed sperm.”

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BOTTOM LINE:

1) Never let the absence of data prove the safety of a chemical.
2) Sense Beautiful Science skin care products are free of phthalates. :)

Wishing you a wonderful day!

Marie Bertrand
SkinScience Clinic
www.skinscience.md

Source: Toxic Cosmetics (2007)