The Power of Information
5 Years in a Row
Top rated, 2003-2007
At EWG, our team of scientists, engineers, policy experts, lawyers and computer programmers pores over government data, legal documents, scientific studies and our own laboratory tests to expose threats to your health and the environment, and to find solutions. Our research brings to light unsettling facts that you have a right to know.
Beauty Secrets: The phthalate industry left it up
The phthalate industry left it up to the government to finally develop a test method that gives accurate measurements of phthalates in people.
Historically, phthalate exposure has been difficult to measure precisely because the compounds are so widely used. Pervasive background contamination during laboratory analyses commonly produced test results where true contamination in body fluids could not be distinguished from phthalates found in laboratory equipment or in cosmetics worn by technicians. Until the CDC published its research in September 2000, it was generally assumed that phthalates detected in biological samples in large part reflected this background contamination.
As the CERHR study of phthalate risk neared completion, independent work led by Dr. John Brock at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) resulted in a new analytical method that would, for the first time, allow for the accurate analysis of phthalates in biological samples free from concerns of background contamination. Brock's method involves testing urine for human breakdown products, or metabolites, of phthalates. The specific metabolites for which he tests, called the glucaronidated monoesters, are not manufactured by industry. With Brock's innovative method, issues of background contamination disappear.
