Don’t take our word for it. Here’s every fact on this site, with its evidence grade, its caveats, and a link to the source, so you can check us.
We start you on the strong ones: findings that have been replicated or come from one large, well-controlled study. Moderate and weak facts are here too, labeled for what they are. Use “Link to this fact” to share a single card.
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
About half of children's diaper-rash creams (13 of 28) and a third of children's sunscreens (10 of 29) listed fragrance.
Weak evidence.
Caveats
Small category counts; label count only. Sunscreen share is market-specific: 64.9% (87/134) of Danish children's sunscreens and sun sprays listed fragrance or a named allergen (Botvid 2023), so 'a third of sunscreens' should not be generalized beyond Brazil; diaper creams were not reported separately in Denmark.
Source: Uber 2024, Jornal de Pediatria (Rio de Janeiro) Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
In 130 Danish and Finnish mothers, phthalate breakdown products were reported in essentially every breast milk sample (95-100% for each of the six measured) — but an independent, more contamination-controlled US study (Hines 2009) found the analogous class of monoester phthalate metabolites in under 10% of milk samples from a separate cohort, and declined to report its own milk hydrolytic-monoester data (which would include MEP) as likely contamination-inflated.
Weak evidence.
Caveats
1997-2001 samples; composite home-collected milk; phosphoric acid was not added at collection 'due to logistics' (this page's own Methods/limitations), a known contamination risk for hydrolytic monoesters. Hines 2009 (EPA/CDC, tighter contamination controls) found the analogous metabolite class in <10% of milk samples and withheld its own milk hydrolytic-monoester data on contamination grounds. US EPA systematic review (Radke 2018) separately excluded this study's milk data as a critically deficient exposure matrix.
Source: Main 2006, Environmental Health Perspectives Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
Baby boys whose mothers' milk contained more dibutyl phthalate had slightly lower free testosterone at 3 months (about 15% lower per 10-fold rise). For diethyl phthalate, the fragrance phthalate, the link was with higher SHBG, and its free-testosterone trend was not significant. These are correlations in 96 boys, not proof of harm.
Weak evidence.
Caveats
MBP–free T r = −0.22 (p = 0.033); mEP–free T r = −0.19 (p = 0.07, NS). US EPA review excluded this study (breast milk critically deficient as an exposure matrix for short-chain phthalates) and rated infant-testosterone evidence indeterminate (Lin 2011: MEP r = −0.10). 46% of Danish mothers used breast pumps.
Source: Main 2006, Environmental Health Perspectives Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
In one early, small US study, boys in the highest phthalate group had about 4 to 10 times the odds (3.8-10.2) of a shorter-than-expected anogenital distance than the lowest group, depending on the phthalate. A larger (N=753) follow-up by the same group found much smaller effect sizes for the one phthalate class (DEHP) that replicated, and did not test comparable categorical odds ratios.
Weak evidence.
Caveats
Single small cohort with very wide CIs (MEP OR 3.8, 1.03-13.9); US EPA rated this cohort's AGD data (extended n=106) low confidence. The DEP (MEP) part did not replicate in three larger cohorts, including the same group's own N=753 TIDES follow-up (Swan 2015), which also found smaller continuous effect sizes for the metabolites that did replicate (DEHP: beta -1.12 to -1.43 in TIDES vs -3.50 to -5.13 in this cohort, per Swan 2015's Discussion), consistent with lower current-day exposure. Quote as one small study's result only; prefer the EPA review or Swan 2015 for general claims.
Source: Swan 2005, Environmental Health Perspectives Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Self-reported survey
In a US survey, parents reported that 7 in 10 children aged 12 and under (219 of 312) had used makeup or body products such as face paint, glitter, nail polish, or body spray, including more than half of children aged 3 or younger (48 of 84).
Weak evidence.
Caveats
207 self-selected parents recruited mostly online in NYC/Boston/Houston; not nationally representative; ~60% of raw responses excluded as spam/fraud. Partial external check: in a Brazilian clinic survey (Melo 2020) per-category color-cosmetic rates matched Medley's (lipstick 18.8% vs lip ≈21%, nail 22.4% vs ≈22%), but the 70% total is driven by body products (face paint, glitter, bath bombs) that Melo did not ask about, and Melo found make-up in only ≈3% of infants, so the under-3 figure reflects body products, not make-up.
Source: Medley 2023 Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Self-reported survey
Among US children who used makeup or body products, about 1 in 8 used them daily, about 1 in 5 wore them for 8 hours or more, and about 1 in 3 had swallowed some in the past year.
Weak evidence: Parent report for 217 child users; ingestion differed sharply by ethnicity (41% vs 11%), possibly a question-wording effect.
Source: Medley 2023 Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Self-reported survey
Most US children who use makeup also use products made for adults: only about a third (36%) used mostly children's products.
Weak evidence.
Caveats
Parent estimate of product share; small non-representative sample. Applies to makeup only: for cleansers, a Brazilian clinic survey (Melo 2020) found the majority used children's products (children's soap 56.5%, children's shampoo 65.9%; adult soap 37.3%, adult shampoo 27.2%, rising with age), so do not write 'most children use adult products' generally.
Source: Medley 2023 Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Self-reported survey
In a US survey, boys and girls who used makeup or body products used fragrance products (perfume, cologne, body spray) at the same rate, about 31%.
Weak evidence.
Caveats
Scent-purpose products only; cleansers excluded, so not a fragrance-exposure prevalence. Indirect support for sex parity: in Melo 2020 (Brazil, 182/276 perfume users, 126 girls) at least 56/150 boys (≥37%) used perfume, so perfume is not a girls-only product; but the Brazilian level (66% of all children) is 3x the US level (≈21%), so the ~31% figure must not be generalized.
Source: Medley 2023 Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Self-reported survey
The only population study of lavender and tea tree oils and hormone problems in children (556 US children) was too small to rule out a risk: regularly exposed children had 2.8 times the rate of endocrine diagnoses, with a 95% confidence interval from 0.35 to 22 times.
Weak evidence: Not statistically significant; parent-reported diagnoses; self-selected natural-product users; 9 events. Supports 'not ruled out', not 'causes'.
Source: Hawkins 2021, International Journal of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine Industry-funded Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
In 2007, US government (NIEHS) scientists described three boys aged 4–10 who developed breast tissue while using products containing lavender oil or lavender and tea tree oil (a homemade balm, hair gel and shampoo, soap and lotions); in each case it went away within months of stopping the products.
Weak evidence: 3 case reports, dechallenge only, no rechallenge, products not analyzed; causation contested (BASF guideline tests negative for linalool/linalyl acetate; Braunstein 2023 review).
Source: Henley 2007, New England Journal of Medicine Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Review of other studies
In the reported cases, children had been using lavender-scented products regularly (violet-water colognes, shampoos, soaps, baby bath, lotions) or sat beside a classroom diffuser, and breast growth went away after the products were stopped; early breast growth in children often goes away on its own, so this does not prove cause.
Weak evidence.
Caveats
Case reports with dechallenge only; no comparison group; at least one of the violet-water colognes declared and contained no essential oil by an industry analysis (Giroux & Orjubin 2020). Linklater 2015's own transient alpha-fetoprotein/prolactin elevation resolved on its own over the same 12 months, for an unrelated physiological reason (infant liver immaturity) the authors themselves cite — a concrete illustration, from inside this same case, that concurrent findings can normalize without being caused by the product change.
Source: Hawkins 2020, Complementary Therapies in Medicine Industry-funded Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
Four prepubertal children (three girls with early breast development and one boy with breast growth) whose doctors recorded continuous use of products they identified as containing lavender saw the breast tissue disappear within three to six months of stopping the product.
Weak evidence.
Caveats
Four uncontrolled case reports, dechallenge only, no product analysis by the authors, and no chemical measured in any child; both conditions can resolve spontaneously. An essential-oil industry analysis later reported the boy's violet-water cologne declared and contained no essential oil (DEP, alpha-isomethyl ionone, and azo dyes instead), and one girl's baby bath only 'very low' lavender oil (unquantified).
Source: Ramsey 2019, The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Self-reported survey
At one Miami children's hospital, 16 of the 24 children seen over seven years for unexplained early breast growth had been using lavender-scented products; 14 of the 16 were Hispanic and the products were violet-water colognes of a kind often applied to babies.
Weak evidence.
Caveats
Clinic case tally with no unexposed comparison group and no use-prevalence denominator; a clinic aware of the lavender hypothesis will ask about lavender; one violet-water cologne from this clinic's case reports declared and contained no essential oil by an industry analysis. Diaz 2016 (2015, same hospital, corresponding author Alejandro Diaz also a co-author here) reported 3 boys with the same outcome in the years just before this tally's window; those 3 cases are almost certainly a subset of this 16/24 figure, not additional to it, so this figure and Diaz 2016 should never be added together.
Source: Ramsey 2019, The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
One of the four children had never used a lavender product at all: she sat beside a classroom lavender oil diffuser that ran all day for a year, and her breast tissue regressed three months after the diffuser exposure stopped.
Weak evidence: Single case report, no air measurement was made in the classroom, and measured indoor terpene levels elsewhere are far below the concentrations that were active in the cell assays.
Source: Ramsey 2019, The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
In the same 2018 NGO test, a children's shampoo had 24 unlabeled chemicals flagged for health hazards (17 on the fragrance-industry list), and a baby shampoo had 6.
Weak evidence: Counts, not amounts; single samples; not peer reviewed; not a risk ranking.
Source: BCPP 2018 Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
In a Danish-Finnish study (130 boys, hormones measured in 96), some phthalates in mothers' breast milk went with hormone changes at 3 months that point to weaker male-hormone action (higher SHBG for mEP and mBP; lower free testosterone for mBP only).
Weak evidence.
Caveats
Association; hormones in 96 boys; 46% of Danish mothers had used breast pumps; US EPA review excluded this study (milk critically deficient as exposure matrix) and rated infant testosterone indeterminate.
Source: Main 2006, Environmental Health Perspectives Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Self-reported survey
Children's lipstick, nail polish, and eyeshadow use was about the same in a Brazilian hospital survey and a US parent survey (roughly 19-22%, 22% and 11-13%), but perfume use was three times higher in Brazil (66% vs about 21%).
Weak evidence.
Caveats
Our cross-study arithmetic (Medley per-user rates re-based to all 312 children); different definitions ('perfume' vs 'fragrance products primarily for children'), ages (<=14 vs <=12) and sampling.
Source: Melo 2020, Revista Paulista de Pediatria Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Self-reported survey
Every one of 13 Washington DC childcare facilities that reported health data had at least one child with physician-diagnosed asthma, with a typical (median) facility rate of about 10%.
Weak evidence: Center-Director-reported, not chart-confirmed; no exposure-outcome link tested; n=13.
Source: Quirós-Alcalá 2016, Environmental Research Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
Three more boys (ages 9-11) developed breast tissue while using lavender-labeled products, a shampoo or an 'agua de violetas' cologne sprayed on by a parent since early childhood; in each case it resolved within about 4 months of stopping the product.
Weak evidence.
Caveats
Three uncontrolled case reports, dechallenge only, no rechallenge; same hospital and a shared corresponding author (Alejandro Diaz) as Ramsey 2019's later clinic tally, so this is not an independent replication of the case count.
Source: Diaz 2016, Journal of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
A 14-month-old girl in Melbourne, Australia developed breast tissue while being given five different lavender-scented infant products every day (wipes, shampoo, body wash, cream, and lotion); it went away after the products were stopped, and this case has no connection to the better-known United States case series.
Weak evidence.
Caveats
One case report (letter to the editor), dechallenge only, no rechallenge, no product testing; the exposure was identified only after the family saw a documentary about this exact link, not through routine clinical questioning.
Source: Linklater & Hewitt 2015, Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Review of other studies
Continuous nebulized albuterol (CNA), prepared from a benzalkonium-chloride-containing multidose 0.5% albuterol dropper bottle at standard pediatric dosing (10-20 mg/hour), would deliver an estimated 800-1600 micrograms of benzalkonium chloride over 4 hours — several-fold above the approximately 300-microgram cumulative dose shown to cause bronchospasm in adults with mild asthma.
Weak evidence.
Caveats
This is an arithmetic extrapolation from adult mild-asthma dosing studies to pediatric severe-asthma continuous nebulization, not a measured pediatric dose or outcome; no controlled trial has tested continuous nebulized albuterol with vs. without BAC in children.
Source: Prabhakaran 2017 Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Other evidence
In a retrospective cohort of 1,298 children with acute asthma treated with continuous nebulized albuterol (15 mg/hour) at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, using a benzalkonium-chloride-containing dropper-bottle formulation, 31% required prolonged therapy (more than 24 hours) or had clinical deterioration.
Weak evidence.
Caveats
This retrospective cohort (Kenyon et al. 2014) had no benzalkonium-chloride-free comparison group, so the association with BAC is not established; the review's own authors call the causal link speculative ("tempting to speculate").
Source: Prabhakaran 2017 Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Self-reported survey
Household ammonia use was the only one of 10 individual cleaning agents (out of 30 agent-outcome comparisons) significantly associated with an outcome in this study: adolescents in homes where ammonia was ever used had lower odds of rhinitis, adjusted OR 0.60 (95% CI 0.44, 0.82), than those in homes that never used it.
Weak evidence.
Caveats
The study's own authors call this a likely chance finding given the number of associations tested and their limited statistical power to explore it further; not a basis for claiming ammonia protects against rhinitis.
Source: Bukalasa et al. 2019, Environment International Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Other evidence
Lilial's metabolites have been measured, at very low concentrations, in the urine of children and adolescents in Germany (geometric mean about 10.2 µg/L for p-tert-butylbenzoic acid, about 1.5 µg/L for lysmeral, and below quantification limits for lysmerylic acid and hydroxy-lysmerylic acid).
Weak evidence.
Caveats
This is a citation, within Jablonská 2023, of a separate human-biomonitoring survey (Murawski 2020, GerES V), not primary data generated by this paper; our evidence base does not yet hold that source directly.
Source: Jablonská 2023, Sci Rep 13:18536, Scientific Reports Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Review of other studies
US dermatology guidance recommends including aluminum in baseline allergy patch testing for children, given a high prevalence of aluminum allergy in children and early-life exposure to aluminum through childhood vaccines.
Weak evidence: A single-sentence guidance recommendation in a narrative review, not new pediatric data; the review does not report a pediatric aluminum-allergy prevalence figure itself.
Source: Musicante 2024, Cutis Industry-funded Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Government agency
In animal studies, a pregnant female's exposure to an endocrine-disrupting chemical can affect not only her offspring but her offspring's offspring, because developmental exposure can alter reproductive-cell programming that carries across generations.
Weak evidence: Evidence for these transgenerational effects comes from animal studies cited in the report; no multigenerational human dataset is cited for this specific claim.
Source: WHO/UNEP 2012 Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Other evidence
Prenatal exposure to phthalates in synthetic candle fragrance can promote permanent, irreversible changes to fetal immune-system development and contribute to childhood asthma and allergies.
Weak evidence: Secondhand citation of a general phthalate-immune mechanism paper, not a candle-specific exposure or outcome measurement; no dose given for candle-derived phthalate exposure.
Source: Singh 2023, Environmental Science & Technology Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
In a case-control study of adolescents aged 12-18 (62 with PCOS, 33 controls), urinary BPA levels were positively correlated with polycystic ovarian morphology seen on ultrasound.
Weak evidence: Single small study (Akgül 2019, cited within this review), not replicated in adolescents elsewhere in the review.
Children and pregnancy / Review of other studies
Studies of pregnant women's phthalate exposure and their children's later weight disagree in direction: one study linked higher maternal DEHP and DINP metabolites to a greater chance of excess infant weight gain, while another found children born to mothers with the highest DEHP exposure actually had slightly lower body fat at birth than those with the lowest exposure.
Weak evidence.
Caveats
Results vary by specific phthalate compound, child sex, and study design; the direction of effect (more fat vs. less fat) is inconsistent across the available prospective cohorts, so no reliable direction of effect can be claimed for maternal phthalate exposure and infant body composition.
Source: Dalamaga 2024, International Journal of Molecular Sciences Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Other evidence
In a small human study, petrolatum and paraffin oil applied to the forearms of 9 adults and 7 infants penetrated only into the stratum corneum (the skin's outer dead-cell layer) in both age groups, with petrolatum reaching deeper into that layer (up to about 30 micrometers) than paraffin oil (under 10 micrometers), but neither substance was detected passing into living skin layers or the bloodstream.
Weak evidence.
Caveats
Single small study (16 subjects total, both age groups pooled in the review's reporting) using a lab technique (confocal Raman spectroscopy) not independently replicated for infant skin in this review; industry-funded secondary source relaying the primary study, not independently re-analyzed here.
Source: Stamatas et al. 2008, via Petry et al. 2017, Toxicology Letters Industry-funded Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Review of other studies
Human cohort studies summarized in a 2017 review link prenatal and childhood phthalate exposure to poorer childhood executive function, attention, aggression, depression, and ADHD diagnosis/severity.
Weak evidence.
Caveats
A 2020 US EPA systematic review (Radke 2020) rated evidence for phthalates and cognition, behavior and ADHD only 'slight' or 'indeterminate' for each phthalate, found pooled infant Bayley scores null, and excluded the cross-sectional child-urine design used by several of the relayed studies. Single-cohort associations (e.g., Engel 2018 DEHP-ADHD OR 1.5) exist but are inconsistent; exposure is all-source phthalates, not fragrance. Associations only.
Source: Kanwal 2017 review, citing Engel 2010, Cho 2010, Kim 2009, Park 2015, Environmental Research Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Other evidence
Standard adult default values for breathing rate and body weight used in cosmetic spray inhalation exposure calculations are not appropriate for children; breathing frequency and lung volume must be adapted for a child-specific assessment.
Weak evidence: The paper gives no child-specific parameter values, defaults or worked example; this is an acknowledgment that adult defaults don't apply, not a child exposure calculation.
Source: Steiling et al. 2025, Toxicology Letters Industry-funded Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Review of other studies
NRDC's 2007 report recommends avoiding air freshener use especially where children or pregnant women are present, based on general phthalate reproductive-toxicity evidence rather than any health study of these specific air freshener products or exposures.
Weak evidence: Precautionary recommendation; the report did not measure human exposure or health outcomes from air freshener use in children or pregnant women.
Source: NRDC 2007, Clearing the Air Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Other evidence
Children aged 5-14 living in New York City buildings with a perchloroethylene dry cleaner had median blood levels of 0.11 ng/mL versus 0.02 in children in nearby buildings without one; children's levels were not higher than adults' in the same buildings.
Weak evidence.
Caveats
Small group (about 66 and 71 children); level difference between children and adults not statistically significant; no health outcome measured in this paper (the authors cite a separate report of slightly altered vision contrast sensitivity).
Source: Storm 2013, Environmental Research Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Other evidence
A 2020 review states that endocrine-disrupting chemicals found in the placenta (pesticides, personal care product chemicals, flame retardants, BPA, PCBs) could be associated with fetal growth restriction, thyroid dysfunction, and neurological disorders, but the mechanisms are largely unknown.
Weak evidence: Association stated through a single cited review; mechanisms rest largely on animal and small human studies; not a demonstrated causal risk.
Source: Street 2020, International Journal of Molecular Sciences Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Other evidence
In a 2020 review, a meta-analysis cited found that a two-fold rise in childhood urinary DEHP metabolites went with about a 0.8-point IQ reduction, versus about a 0.6-point reduction in a motor-development index for a two-fold rise in prenatal exposure, and the review says phthalate exposure matters more in childhood than before birth.
Weak evidence: Secondary report of a meta-analysis; tiny effect sizes; observational; DEHP is not the fragrance phthalate.
Source: Street 2020, International Journal of Molecular Sciences Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Other evidence
Studies of pregnant women found mixed results on phthalates and preterm birth: several (for example 130 preterm births vs 352 controls) linked DEHP breakdown products to earlier delivery, while two cohorts found longer pregnancies.
Weak evidence: Narrative review summarizing observational studies of urinary metabolites; it still concludes a relationship exists, which goes beyond the mixed directions it reports.
Source: Mesquita 2021, Molecular Reproduction and Development Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Other evidence
For baby boys' anogenital distance, most cited cohorts found shorter distances with higher prenatal phthalate exposure, but the review also lists studies finding no link (Taiwan 33 boys, Denmark 273 boys, Canadian MIREC).
Weak evidence.
Caveats
Narrative review; its statement that 'all studies' agree except MIREC is contradicted by the nulls it lists, and EPA's graded review rated the fragrance phthalate DEP only slight for this outcome.
Source: Mesquita 2021, Molecular Reproduction and Development Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Other evidence
The authors' model puts the dermal formaldehyde dose from clothing highest in babies (about 1.1e-3 mg/kg/day, socks the largest single item) and finds hazard quotients far below 1 and cancer risk below 1e-5 for pregnant women, babies, and toddlers.
Weak evidence.
Caveats
Modeled, not measured: assumes 0.5% migration and 1% skin penetration, no biomonitoring; worst-case toddler outfit about 9.7e-6, close to the 1e-5 limit (approx., read from Fig. 3).
Children and pregnancy / Animal study
Rodent studies cited report effects of prenatal BPA at maternal doses of 25 µg/kg/day or less, including prostate enlargement, altered mammary development, and behavior changes; whether this applies to human fetuses at real exposures is not shown by this paper.
Weak evidence: Animal data; the abstract's comparison of human fetal median with mouse effect levels is loose (different route, single dose, time-varying levels).
Source: vom Saal & Hughes 2005, Environmental Health Perspectives Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Other evidence
Children's night clothes and underwear are mainly cotton and made outside the EU (18 of 22 children's-clothes firms), so the dyes of concern there are azo dyes under REACH rather than polyester disperse dyes.
Weak evidence: Questionnaire of 22 Danish firms, no purchase data; the garments actually tested were mostly polyester and not typical night clothes or underwear.
Source: Danish EPA 2014, Survey of Chemical Substances in Consumer Products No. 129 Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Other evidence
Do not give infants homeopathic teething products: EASAC (2017) reports FDA findings of severe adverse events, including infant deaths, linked to varying belladonna content in such products.
Weak evidence: Secondhand, no numbers; the belladonna link is as reported by FDA via a news article.
Source: EASAC 2017, EASAC Statement (September 2017) Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Other evidence
Skin tape-strip tests at about 2 months of age picked up differences before eczema appeared: in one Korean birth cohort, lower protein-bound ceramide plus higher TSLP, IL-13 and 26:1 sphingomyelin gave an odds ratio above 50 for later eczema, and a different marker set reached up to 101 for later food allergy.
Weak evidence: One cohort; a Danish finding (low phytosphingosine) was not replicated by two others; no confidence intervals given; the author says verification across ethnicities is needed.
Source: Berdyshev 2024, Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Research Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Review of other studies
The review proposes that 'specialized emollients' could be used in infants flagged by skin lipid biomarkers to reinforce the barrier, but it presents this as a possibility, not a tested result.
Weak evidence: No trial data in the review; randomized trials in our evidence base found benefit in one small trial and none in a larger one.
Source: Berdyshev 2024, Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Research Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Other evidence
Perchloroethylene has been found in breast milk (0.15-43 micrograms per liter in a New Jersey group, with an estimated infant dose of 0.0001-0.82 milligrams per kilogram per day), and no study of cancer risk from early-life exposure was available to US EPA.
Weak evidence: Old (1980s-90s) data relayed twice; the 0.0001-0.82 range spans almost four orders of magnitude and is an estimate; presence in milk is not a measured health effect.
Source: SCDHS 2018 Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Other evidence
FDA asks whether oxybenzone sunscreens should be contraindicated for children under 2 years old, because children under 2 may not fully have the enzymes that metabolize oxybenzone and have a higher body-surface-to-weight ratio.
Weak evidence: The enzyme point is a theoretical argument from a 2006 report; FDA says it is seeking existing pediatric data and public comment, and has not made a finding.
Source: FDA proposed order OTC000008 (2021) Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Other evidence
The industry panel accepted new baby-product uses of trimoniums (for example behentrimonium chloride baby shampoo at 0.4%) because use levels are below 1%, 'lower than that which caused irritation', and skin absorption is low.
Weak evidence: Reasoning from adult and animal data; no infant-specific safety studies reviewed. CIR is financed by the Personal Care Products Council, the cosmetics industry trade association.
Source: Becker et al. 2012 (CIR), Int J Toxicol, International Journal of Toxicology Industry-funded Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Government agency
In the same EPA screening, ADBAC egg-shell washing at 400 ppm exceeded the chronic reference dose only for children 1-2 years old (120%), prompting EPA to plan to require egg residue data.
Weak evidence: Screening estimate using the label maximum for all egg commodities; a plan to gather data, not a measured exposure.
Source: US EPA 2017 Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
The behavior associations from prenatal low-molecular-weight phthalates were generally stronger in boys than girls: for example, conduct problems rose about 2.8 points in boys vs 1.7 in girls per log-unit, and aggression, externalizing and the behavioral symptoms index had significant sex interactions (p 0.01 to 0.05).
Weak evidence.
Caveats
Sex interactions tested at alpha 0.10 across about 20 scales without multiplicity control; the paper's text also says some effects were 'not modified by sex', contradicting Table 3; stratified n about 161; MoBa 2018 found no sex modification.
Source: Engel 2010, Environmental Health Perspectives Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
Among 180 Korean children with ADHD, higher urinary levels of the DBP breakdown product MBP went with higher oppositional-defiant and aggression scores (ODD score +6.1 points per ln-unit, 95% CI 3.0-9.2).
Weak evidence.
Caveats
Cross-sectional association within a clinic sample; roughly 20 outcome models without multiplicity correction; parent-rated ADHD-RS itself was not significantly associated; MBP is from plastics and food contact, and fragrance phthalate DEP was not measured.
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
In 115 Korean children with ADHD, higher urinary DEHP breakdown products went with thinner cortex in a small area of the right temporal lobe on MRI.
Weak evidence.
Caveats
Cross-sectional, single cohort, no imaging control group, small clusters (14 and 48 vertices); cortical thickness did not track externalizing scores, so the authors' 'negative impact on cortical maturation' is interpretation, not demonstration.
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
Higher DEHP breakdown products in urine went with more commission errors (impulsive responding) on a computer attention test in children with ADHD (B=13.6, 95% CI 3.7-23.6).
Weak evidence: One cross-sectional clinic sample, single spot urine; reverse causation and confounding by referral and diet cannot be excluded.
Children and pregnancy / Review of other studies
In a 2015 review of phthalates and child neurodevelopment, the adverse results for the fragrance phthalate DEP (measured as urinary MEP) came from a single New York City cohort reported in two papers, while most other adverse signals involved DBP, DEHP and BBzP, which come mainly from plastics, food contact and medication coatings.
Weak evidence: Urinary MEP comes from all DEP sources, not only fragrance; neither paper measured fragrance use; one cohort.
Source: [[src-2015-phthalate-exposure-childrens-neurodevelopment-systematic|Ejaredar 2015]], Environmental Research Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Other evidence
The one adverse result in that cohort was a lower motor score at age 4 with higher prenatal MBzP (a metabolite of the plastics phthalate BBzP), about 1.5 points per doubling; the authors judged it possibly due to chance.
Weak evidence: One of many comparisons, no multiplicity correction; MBzP is not a fragrance phthalate; EPA's 2020 review treats BBP motor effects as a larger pattern.
Source: [[src-2015-prenatal-exposure-phthalates-neuropsychological-development-during-childhood|Gascon 2015]], International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Other evidence
In the EPA review the only moderate-strength finding was BBP and motor development in girls: pooled girls' Bayley motor score fell about 1.6 points per ln-unit of maternal urinary MBzP (CI -2.6 to -0.6), while boys showed no decline.
Weak evidence: Subgroup result from 5 studies; no formal sex-interaction test; BBP is a plastics and vinyl phthalate, not a fragrance one; EPA says more evidence is needed.
Source: Radke 2020, Environment International Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
In a New York City study of 295 newborns, mothers' late-pregnancy urinary levels of plastics-type (high-molecular-weight, DEHP-type) phthalate metabolites went with lower alertness and orientation scores in baby girls (Orientation about -0.37 points and Quality of Alertness -0.48 points, 95% CI -0.83 to -0.12, per log unit), but not in boys.
Weak evidence.
Caveats
Single cohort, one spot urine, exploratory sex-interaction models (p 0.03-0.06), no multiple-comparison correction; the same cohort as Engel 2010, so not an independent replication; the compounds are plasticizer phthalates, not fragrance ones.
Source: Engel 2009 (Mount Sinai), NeuroToxicology Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
The Mount Sinai cohort's prenatal phthalate signals change with the outcome and age: plastics-type (HMW) metabolites went with lower newborn alertness in girls, but were null for behavior at ages 4-9, while the low-molecular-weight sum went with slightly better newborn motor scores in boys and worse behavior scores at ages 4-9.
Weak evidence.
Caveats
Same mothers, urines and lab; different outcome tools and ages; every result is a single-sample observational association and the pattern could be chance across many exploratory tests.
Source: Engel 2009 (Mount Sinai), NeuroToxicology Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Other evidence
In the same NYC study, mothers with higher pregnancy MnBP, MiBP or MBzP (dibutyl and butylbenzyl phthalate metabolites) reported more withdrawn, somatic and internalizing-type behavior in their 3-year-olds, though effects differed by child sex.
Weak evidence: Mother-reported checklist, small clinical cells, sex differences scattered and not corrected for multiple tests.
Source: Whyatt 2012 (CCCEH), Environmental Health Perspectives Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Other evidence
The NYC CCCEH study found no link between pregnancy levels of DEHP (plastics) metabolites and Bayley mental or motor scores or behavior checklist outcomes in 3-year-olds.
Weak evidence: DEHP urinary reliability was low (ICC 0.27-0.42), which can hide real effects.
Source: Whyatt 2012 (CCCEH), Environmental Health Perspectives Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
The NHANES paper's sex finding, DEHP and co-occurring ADD and learning disability in girls (OR 6.2, 95% CI 1.7-22.7) but not boys (0.9), rests on about 56 cases and one interaction among 14 uncorrected tests, and other cohorts do not show a consistent girls-more-affected pattern.
Weak evidence: Small numbers, wide CIs, multiple testing; other cohorts point to boys or opposite signs.
Source: Chopra 2014 (NHANES), Environmental Research Link to this fact
Information, not medical advice. See also: myths we won’t tell you.