What are phthalates?

Phthalates are a specific group of plasticizers, called external plasticizers. Due to external influences, such as pressure and temperature, they can migrate from the composite, migrate. Phthalates such as the plasticizer diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) are among the most important industrial chemicals and are produced in very large quantities.

Of the 2 million tons of DEHP produced worldwide each year, 90 percent are used as plasticisers for PVC. Phthalates are also used in many other areas, such as the manufacture of personal care products and textiles, and are therefore ubiquitous in the environment. Humans absorb phthalates mainly from food and breath. In this way they get into the organism, where they act on the hormone balance.

Latest research

Phthalates are considered to be extremely hazardous to health: disturbances in hormone balance and human reproductive function, increases in liver and kidney damage, testicular cancers and malformations of male reproductive organs are discussed in the context of phthalate exposure. US scientists at the University of Rochester have long been confirming existing assumptions that phthalate exposure to aspiring mothers could negatively impact the development of the sex organs of male sprouts.

Source: "Environmental Health Perspectives" / BBC Health

Scientists at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg have found in a study funded by the German Research Society that the population and especially children absorb significantly more phthalates than previously thought. The quantities in part exceed the TDI (tolerable daily intake) value, ie the dose that a person can take up daily throughout his life without fear of damaging effects.

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 The plasticizer used for the articles has a significantly lower tendency to migrate, compared to phthalate plasticizers, according to the latest scientific research, study by the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering.

Current situation in the EU

At its meeting on 5 July 2005, the European Parliament called for a ban on phthalates in children's toys and childcare articles.

What are plasticisers?

Plasticizers are substances that are incorporated into the PVC and whose physical properties, such. As strength, flexibility, softness and elongation influence.
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