EWG Skin Deep® | What is BUTYL BENZYL PHTHALATE

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Data: Robust

Butyl Benzyl Phthalate

IMAGE SOURCE: PubChem

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Other Concerns

Use restrictions (high), Endocrine disruption (moderate), Persistence and bioaccumulation (moderate), Non-reproductive organ system toxicity (moderate), and Ecotoxicology (low)

SYNONYMS

● 1,2-BENZENEDICARBOXYLIC ACID, BUTYL PHENYLMETHYL ESTER

● BBP

● BENZYL BUTYL ESTER PHTHALIC ACID

● BENZYL BUTYL PHTHALATE

● BUTYL BENZYL PHTHALATE

● BUTYL BENZYLPHTHALATE

● BUTYL PHENYLMETHYL ESTER 1,2-BENZENEDICARBOXYLIC ACID

● BZBP

● PHTHALIC ACID, BENZYL BUTYL ESTER

Unacceptable

Unacceptable: EWG VERIFIED products cannot contain this ingredient

Butyl Benzyl Phthalate is an aromatic ester.

Common concerns

See how this product scores for common concerns.

MODERATE

Cancer
MODERATE

Allergies & Immunotoxicity
MODERATE

Developmental and Reproductive Toxicity
HIGH

Use Restrictions

Ingredient concerns

CONCERNS
DATA SOURCES

Products with this Ingredient

Use restrictions

CONCERN	REFERENCE
Violation of government restrictions - Banned or found unsafe for use in cosmetics	CosIng

Persistence and bioaccumulation

CONCERN	REFERENCE
Persistent or bioaccumulative and moderate to high toxicity concern in humans	Environment Canada Domestic Substance List
Persistent, bioaccumulative in wildlife	OSPAR PBTs - Substances of Possible Concern
Not suspected to be persistent	Environment Canada Domestic Substance List

Developmental/reproductive toxicity

CONCERN	REFERENCE
Possible human developmental toxicant	California EPA Proposition 65
Limited evidence of developmental toxicity	CPS&Q - Classification & Labelling
One or more animal studies show reproductive effects at low doses	Open scientific literature
Limited evidence of developmental toxicity	Scorecard.org Toxicity Information
Limited evidence of developmental toxicity	Open scientific literature

Endocrine disruption

CONCERN	REFERENCE
Human endocrine disruptor - strong evidence	European Commission on Endocrine Disruption
Limited evidence of endocrine disruption	Scorecard.org Toxicity Information
endocrine - weight of evidence unknown/unassessed/unreview: published lit review or major tox study	Our Stolen Future Endocrine Disruptors
endocrine - weight of evidence unknown/unassessed/unreview: published lit review or major tox study	Illinois EPA Chemicals Associated with Endocrine System

Organ system toxicity (non-reproductive)

CONCERN	REFERENCE
Classified as expected to be toxic or harmful	Environment Canada Domestic Substance List
One or more animal studies show classified as toxic effects at moderate doses (low dose studies may be unavailable for this ingredient)	EPA Toxic Release Inventory PBTs
One or more animal studies show any effects at moderate doses (low dose studies may be unavailable for this ingredient)	EPA Categorized List of Inert Pesticide Ingredients
Classified as a low human health priority	Environment Canada Domestic Substance List

Cancer

CONCERN	REFERENCE
Limited evidence of carcinogenicity	EPA Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS)
Limited or incomplete evidence of cancer according to safety/hazard data – government assessment cannot classify as human carcinogen due to data gaps	Int'l Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) - Carcinogens

Allergies/immunotoxicity

CONCERN	REFERENCE
One or more human case studies show significant immune or allergenic effects	Open scientific literature

Ecotoxicology

CONCERN	REFERENCE
Wildlife and environmental toxicity	EPA Clean Water Act - Priority Pollutants
Wildlife and environmental toxicity	CPS&Q - Classification & Labelling
Suspected to be an environmental toxin and be persistent or bioaccumulative	Environment Canada Domestic Substance List
Wildlife and environmental toxicity	Illinois EPA Chemicals Associated with Endocrine System
Suspected to be an environmental toxin	Environment Canada Domestic Substance List

Data gaps

CONCERN	REFERENCE
Risk assessment method deficiencies and data gaps - Maximum reported "as used" concentration is basis of safety assessment by industry safety panel (Cosmetic Ingredient Review, CIR) - implicit safe concentration limit in product	Cosmetic Ingredient Review Assessments
544 studies in PubMed science library may include information on the toxicity of this chemical	NLM PubMed

Informational

CONCERN	REFERENCE
Industry or government recommendations for safe use: restrictions on concentration, impurities, product types, or manufacturing methods - any	Cosmetic Ingredient Review Assessments

European Commission. 2013. Cosing, the European Commission database with information on cosmetic substances and ingredients. Accessed on March 1, 2013 at http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/cosmetics/cosing/ .
EC (Environment Canada). 2008. Domestic Substances List Categorization. Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) Environmental Registry.
OSPAR (Oslo-Paris). 2002. OSPAR List of Substances of Possible Concern. Secondary OSPAR List of Substances of Possible Concern. Secondary OSPAR. Place Published, OSPAR Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environement of North-East Atlanic.
California EPA (California Environmental Protection Agency). 9/2008. Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986. Chemicals known to the State to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity.
CPS&Q (Consumer Products Safety & Quality) formely known as ECB (European Chemicals Bureau). 2008. Classification and Labelling: Chemicals: Annex VI of Directive 67/548/EEC through the 31st ATP.
Open scientific/peer reviewed literature
ED (Environmental Defense). 2006. Scorecard _ The Pollution Information Site. http://www.scorecard.org.
EU (European Union)- Strategy for Endocrine Disrupters 2007. Commision on endocrin disruption requested by the European Parliament in 1998.
Colborn T, D Dumanoski, JP Myers. 2006. Widespread Pollutants with Endocrine-disrupting Effects. Updated from original listing in "Our Stolen Future" (1996).
Illinois EPA (Illinois Environmental Protection Agency). 2000. Preliminary list of chemicals associated with endocrine system effects in animals and humans (*) or in vitro (+). In EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) 2000. Handbook for Non-Cancer Health Effects Valuation, Appendix C.
EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). 1999. Toxics Release Inventory Program. PBT Chemical Rule.
EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). 1987 & 2005. Office of Pesticide Programs. Inert (other) Pesticide Ingredients in Pesticide Products - Categorized List of Inert (other) Pesticide Ingredients.
EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). 2008. Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS). Evidence for human carcinogenicity based on 1986-2005 guidelines.
IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer). 2008. Overall Evaluations of Carcinogenicity to Humans, as evaluated in IARC Monographs Volumes 1-99 (a total of 935 agents, mixtures and exposures).
CIR (Cosmetic Ingredient Review). 2006. CIR Compendium, containing abstracts, discussions, and conclusions of CIR cosmetic ingredient safety assessments. Washington DC.
NLM (National Library of Medicine). 2012. PubMed online scientific bibliography data. http://www.pubmed.gov.

Understanding scores

Cosmetics and personal care products are not required to be tested for safety before being allowed on the market. The Skin Deep® scoring system was designed to help the public understand whether a product is safe to use or whether it contains ingredients of concern.

Every product and ingredient in Skin Deep gets a two-part score – one for hazard and one for data availability. The safest products score well by both measures, with a low hazard rating and a fair or better data availability rating.

HOW WE DETERMINE SCORES

Hazard score

The Skin Deep ingredient hazard score, from 1 to 10, reflects known and suspected hazards linked to the ingredients. The EWG VERIFIED^® mark means a product meets EWG’s strictest criteria for transparency and health.

Data availability

The Skin Deep data availability rating reflects the number of scientific studies about the product or ingredient in the published scientific literature.

NONE LIMITED FAIR GOOD ROBUST

Low Availability

Moderate Availability

High Availability