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.
Laws and loopholes / Self-reported survey
Nearly half (49%) of US families in a survey bought children's makeup from large online retailers, and US labeling law (the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act) requires ingredient lists on the package, not on the website.
Moderate evidence: Purchase share is survey self-report; legal point is the authors' reading of the FPLA as of 2022.
Source: Medley 2023 Link to this fact
Laws and loopholes / Review of other studies
Global DEHP regulation is patchy and mostly national: Japan restricted DEHP in food packaging and childcare products in 2003, the EU in 2006, and Canada, the USA, and Australia later banned DEHP above set concentrations in children's products, but many countries still lack comprehensive DEHP regulation, and the exposure data analyzed in this study (2008) predate most of these rules.
Moderate evidence: Regulatory history as summarized in the paper's Discussion, not independently verified against primary legal texts.
Laws and loopholes / Review of other studies
In the US, federal phthalate rules are minimal: the Consumer Product Safety Commission banned 8 phthalates in children's toys and childcare articles (under industry legal challenge), while FDA still allows 28 phthalates in food-contact materials and has only issued guidance, not rules, on phthalates in medicines.
Moderate evidence: Regulatory status as of the 2020 acceptance date and as described by the authors; rules may have changed since.
Source: Engel 2021, American Journal of Public Health Link to this fact
Laws and loopholes / Other evidence
The TENDR authors noted that of the tens of thousands of chemicals on the US EPA inventory, nearly 7,700 are made or imported at 25,000 pounds or more a year and nearly 3,000 at over 1 million pounds a year, and that only a minority have been tested for neurotoxicity in adults and even fewer for effects on children's brain development.
Moderate evidence: Volume counts are as of 2006 and 2012 and are not current.
Source: Bennett et al. 2016 (TENDR Consensus Statement, EHP), Environmental Health Perspectives Link to this fact
Laws and loopholes / Other evidence
Using NHANES 2015-2016 data, OEHHA estimated that children's typical food-dye intakes were below the FDA and JECFA ADIs for most dyes; the exception was Red 3, where hazard indices reached up to 15 against JECFA's 0.1 mg/kg/day.
Moderate evidence: Modeled intake from dye concentration data, few children in the highest cells; two-day-average rows in Table 6 look misprinted.
Information, not medical advice. See also: myths we won’t tell you.