Why Avoid Parabens and Phthalates? A Summary of Recent Studies on Chemicals in Personal Care Products

This "NO" logo is printed on every Garden Girl product. It's there because these are the chemicals that are the foundation of the Garden Girl mission, and are at the root of why I started this company. I am a researcher. I am naturally inquisitive (which, as my husband can attest to, can become a smidge exhausting to be around at times...) but I want to get to the root of things and understand as much as I can. So Garden Girl was not launched until I had done a lot of investigating.

I recently attended my 6th grader's Career Day. The children, all "dressed for success" in their professional clothes, came by each parent's table and asked questions. One of the most popular questions was "why did you start Garden Girl?" My answer was simple, I was finding it hard at that time (2006) to find bath and body products that I felt safe using on my small children and on me. I had started to hear about parabens - that was the first chemical that grabbed my attention. At that time there was a recent study showing possible links between parabens and breast cancer. Were the findings definitive? No - not exactly. But my naturally-inquisitive self found them to be spooky enough to know that I wanted to keep them off my body. That research, naturally, led to more investigation of our exposure to chemicals in our daily lives, and I added phthalates and sulfates to my list as well. I decided I wanted to do more than just research - I wanted to offer products to other consumers like me who wanted safe products that were effective. So many products that are naturally based sound good but just don't work well. 

That was 9 years ago (YIPES!). Over those years I have continued to follow research and it has only served to further confirm that there is something of concern in the chemicals we are exposed to in the air we breathe, the food we eat and the products we use on our bodies. These chemicals have been proven to disrupt the endocrine, neural and/or immune systems in one way or another (click here for a great summary of what endocrine disruptors can do). If you follow Garden Girl on Facebook or Twitter you can see that I will post about recent news in this area.

But I thought it was a good time to summarize some of the more recent studies and thinking in one place:

• As a follow-up to the 2004 UK study (link above), a 2012 study showed that parabens can transform healthy cells into cancer cells.
• A recent study of pregnant women indicated that the more products that women use, the more that shows up in their bodies. The study also showed that products like lotions, cosmetics, perfume and hair gel have the greatest impact. Other studies have also pointed to nail polish, deodorant and hairspray as big contributors to higher levels of phthalates in the urine of women.
• A recent Washington Post article suggests that there is enough evidence that parabens and phthalates could be disruptive to your endocrine system they recommend avoiding products that could have these chemicals. The article recommends that the safest way to ensure that is to look for products that explicitly state that the products are free of these chemicals.
• And it's not just a concern for women. Phthalates have also been connected to male infertility. There have been numerous studies, including this 2014 study, that connect higher exposure to phthalates and fertility issues. Read this New York Times blog post for more (easier to understand) information.

In the end, it is up to you to be on the lookout for chemicals and read labels. It is clear that the FDA has not caught up yet as at this time chemicals have to be proven to be harmful before they are banned, rather than proven to be safe to be used. In this world of faster, better, cheaper we have to be our own advocates. So take a few minutes to read labels. Look for products (like Garden Girl!) that explicitly state what their products do not contain, and when in doubt, avoid products with "fragrance" listed generically on the label (as that one word can indicate dozens of un-listed chemicals) - AND products that say "unfragranced" (which is another way of saying that they used a bunch of chemicals to cover up other scents) - and look for products that say "fragrance free."