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The widely disregarded health risks posed by phthalates - A global call for action
Summary
This review highlights the widespread health risks posed by phthalates from microplastic-containing products, emphasizing their routes of human exposure through food, packaging, and personal care items, and their documented effects including oncogenicity and fetal developmental impacts. The authors call for urgent global regulatory action given the scale and severity of phthalate exposure.
The 21st century has seen an incredible surge in the usage of phthalate-containing microplastics. These chemicals are now seen to be infiltrating the daily lives of billions of people through various routes such as food, packaging, and personal care items and are hence easily absorbed by the human body. Recent literature has highlighted significant findings regarding their oncogenicity and toxicity. Perhaps the most alarming discovery has been the impact of phthalates on the developing fetus, affecting human lives well before they are born. The deleterious effects of these chemicals have been found to range from causing abnormal fetal development and preterm birth to interfering with normal reproductive and neurological development, extending well into the postnatal period. Various studies have been published using animal models to demonstrate that phthalates are associated with lower survival rates among embryos, as well as higher rates of limb deformities. Thus, this correspondence reviews the teratogenic range of phthalates and highlights important areas of future research, aiming to bring light to the silent yet significant repercussions of these chemicals on our future generations.