Persistent Associations Between Prenatal Exposure to Phthalates and Child IQ | Hacker News Reader

Persistent Associations Between Prenatal Exposure to Phthalates and Child IQ

plosone.org

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Just in case you have no idea (like myself) what Phthalates are:

http://www.cdc.gov/biomonitoring/phthalates_factsheet.html

Phthalates are a group of chemicals used to make plastics more flexible and harder to break. They are often called plasticizers. Some phthalates are used as solvents (dissolving agents) for other materials. They are used in hundreds of products, such as vinyl flooring, adhesives, detergents, lubricating oils, automotive plastics, plastic clothes (raincoats), and personal-care products (soaps, shampoos, hair sprays, and nail polishes).

Phthalates are used widely in polyvinyl chloride plastics, which are used to make products such as plastic packaging film and sheets, garden hoses, inflatable toys, blood-storage containers, medical tubing, and some children's toys.

You can add perfume and cologne to that list of personal-care products too.

I wish this study had been a multi-center study, so that children from more than one place were assessed. At least the study is longitudinal, measuring blood levels in the mother late in pregnancy, and then following up with the children at age seven (a very good age to choose for a first IQ test, because by that age child IQ scores on the WISC are stable enough to use for research of this kind). I see this is research funded by the United States federal government. It will be good to look for replication of this finding, especially in samples from other countries, to see if the finding generalizes to populations outside of New York City, the place where these children were assessed.

@exhiliration posted a more approachable article (http://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/chemical-phthalate...) that says:

> South Korean studies have shown kids ages 8 to 11 who have higher evidence of phthalates in their urine were less attentive and more likely to be hyperactive. They also had measurably lower IQs. Another study found they might be associated with obesity in teenagers.

So it is, at the very least, not the only study or the only country linking phthalates to lower IQ.

I thought this writeup was easier to understand: http://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/chemical-phthalate...

My kids drink out of plastic water bottles all day long, both at school and then at soccer practice in the evening. What is the safest material for water bottles? Is BPA-free good enough?

Your kids will survive without carrying around bottles of water all the time. When I was a kid (before all you people started standing on my lawn constantly) we had water fountains at school and the coach brought coolers of tap water to the sports field. You know, one of these.

http://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/H-1631/Breakroom-Supplie...

I'm not sure when the trend of people (not just children) being in the constant company of a bottle of water started. It's certainly not necessary for healthy people who are doing anything other than crossing open country on foot.

I think bottled water is more convenient than that thing.

For some reason fountains are getting scarce. I send mine with bottles.

In America, it is good to be self-reliant and not good someone carries around a cooler of water for you. A bottle of water is a convenient healthy alternative to a box of sugar water. Those water fountains are great for refilling the bottle.

Personally, I use glass, as much for the taste as for peace of mind about potential chemical leaching. Stainless steel is probably second best in terms of safety as long as you make sure that the inside is not lined with plastic or some other coating (it happens) and that it is from a reputable manufacturer and certified free heavy metals or other metals that are not good to ingest.

Here are the bottles I've been using for about a year and a half:

http://amazon.com/Aquasana-AQ-6005-18-Ounce-Bottles-6-Pack/d...

All glass with a BPA-free plastic top. They're great, but I have broken two of them, which is of course the major downside of glass bottles.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bpa-free-plastic-c...

Seems BPA got replaced with chemicals that just haven't been tested as much as BPA but have similar effects.

Glass is probably your best bet.

Agreed.

My kids may be too rough on them for glass, so I may tend towards stainless steel. However, this article shows a nice range of options:

http://ecowatch.com/2014/03/13/non-toxic-bpa-free-bottles/

Considering that phthalates are banned in toys that children put in the mouth in the EU it may be a good idea to think about water containers for kids too.

http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/internal_market/singl...

I use stainless steel as a tougher alternative to glass. Though glass is probably the best solution to the problem. Check out kleen kanteen, http://www.kleankanteen.com/ they make high quality stainless canteens of various sizes, and are great for hiking and on the go.

If you're concerned about it, I suggest getting glass bottles. Bottles with rubber slip covers are available, decreasing the likelihood of breakage when dropped.

Where did the mothers get the phthalates from? What kinds of products promote bio-absorption of packaing phthalates? Are phthalates in packaging correlated to certain kinds of (perhaps brain-unhealthy?) foods?

Everyone (literally 100%) has phthalates in their blood because they're everywhere.. plastic product packaging, dryer sheets, shampoo, cosmetics, carpeting, lotions, body washes, adhesives, insecticides, plastic wrap, wallpaper, ... even if it's just in the packaging, it can leach into the food -- drinks that are in plastic bottles for example.

My first thought was what if it's the contents of the packaging that contains more phthalates than the phthalates themselves. It doesn't seem that they controlled for specific products containing phthalates. For example, what if people who eat poorly, mainly consuming prepackaged junk food have higher phthalate levels?

PVC and Poliestyrene(beautiful transparent plastic)that also adds phisphenol like hormone disruptor.

You find most PVC on drain pipes and windows because it is so cheap.

PVC leak phthalates and other plastic additives to the environment over time.

I avoid those things as much as I can for me and my family. My windows are made from aluminum. My plastic bottles are from ugly Polietylene or PP, but I try to use glass if I can.

Looks like only HDPE, rather than regular PE is safe.

>Where did the mothers get the phthalates from?

Liquid soaps such as shampoo, food packaging, perfume, hairspray, other plastics, especially the plastics used in car interiors.

https://www.productsafety.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/...

I'd guess the main concerns for pregnant women would be cosmetics, perfume and nail polish.

According to Wikipedia, phthalates are often used to soften PVC. PVC doesn't have an especially stellar safety record.

Phthalates are used to plasticize many consumer products. Regulators have been banning them piecemeal, industry responds by changing the molecule slightly and carrying on. Probably regulators are going to eventually just ban phthalates as a class, or someone will figure out some way to make them safe (the current trend is to make them bigger/longer, which may be working or not).

Post hoc ergo propter hoc. Everything I've read indicates that this warrants more investigation, but causality has not yet been assigned.

Pretty big confidence intervals, unclear what the true test space is. I'm just going to leave this [1] here.

[1] http://www.tylervigen.com/

That's what "association" means.

To people trained in the scientific process, maybe, but most people will hear an implied causality.

Let's just hope that we don't get knee-jerk draconian regulatory/legislative response.

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