babble » blogs » Strollerderby
Strollerderby
Chemicals in Plastics are “Gender Benders”
Does your son play with dolls? Could just be his charming personality, or it could be something in the water.
A team of scientists has found that chemicals commonly found in some plastics can make boys more like girls.
The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Rochester, showed that two types of phthalates can affect boys play behavior. Boys with high levels of exposure were less likely to choose traditionally “boyish” toys like cars, and less rough-and-tumble in their play.
Elizabeth Salter-Green, head of the British group CHEMTrust, called the chemicls “true gender benders”, and said parents should be concerned about the impact on their kids.
Phthalates have long been known to mimic human hormones, particularly estrogen, but impacts on people exposed to them have been hard to pin down. A study last year by this same research group showed that male babies exposed to high levels of phthalates during gestation are more likely to be born with genital abnormalities than their less-exposed peers.
The two phthalates implicated in this study are DEHP and DBP. Both were outlawed in children’s toys and baby products sold in the U.S. as of February 2009. Older children’s toys (think, last year’s Christmas gifts) may still contain these chemicals. These chemicals also continue to be common in household products that kids use, like plastic dishware.
How to spot phthalates in your products? They’re not always clearly labeled, to put it mildly. Phthalates are a softening agent, added to plastics to make them flexible. If a product or toy is flexible or stretchy, and is not made of silicone, it probably has some chemical softener in it. Products will often tout their “phthalate-free” status when they’re using a different process to soften their plastics.
Boys preferring dolls to cars is certainly not a bad thing. But a chemically induced gender shift seems a little creepy, to put it mildly.
Photo: Moonbattery
Go Back To Strollerderby
6 Comments
[...] Strollerderby: Chemicals in Plastics are “Gender-Benders” [...]
Want a Green Xmas? You Should Probably Start Now | Strollerderby commented on Dec 02 09 at 11:45 am[...] be afraid. Chemicals like lead, BPA, and phthalates are common in older toys (even ones that were new last Christmas). Sharp edges and loose parts can [...]
A Non-Consumer Christmas: Simple Gifts for Kids and Grown-Ups : Picture Frame Mats commented on Dec 16 10 at 8:55 amAli commented on Nov 18 09 at 5:12 pmCocacola just announces, very quietly, they are moving to a corn based plastic bottle. The word is they know that the chemicals in plastics are the cause of quite a few health problems and are trying to avoid liability. Teflon and other products like it are also quietly bieng phased out. The makers of those products also know it causes damage. BPAs already have been linked with high cholesterol levels. Watch this be the cause of Alzheimers or Autism.
Alison commented on Nov 18 09 at 6:32 pmWhile I am very concerned about the effects of chemicals on our bodies and our brains, there were aspects of this article which gave me pause. “Boys exposed to high levels of these in the womb were less likely than other boys to play with cars, trains and guns or engage in “rougher” games like playfighting.” What exactly does that prove? This sounds a lot like the parents who freak out when their sons play with dolls because they fear the boys will grow up to be gay. What were the pthalate levels in the boys’ bloodstream? How did the researchers control for family/social influences on the boys? A boy with a lot of older sisters may be exposed to feminising influences outside the womb too. I see a lot of boys who have been raised on organic foods who do not conform to our predetermined ideas about gender, is this due to pthalates or, perhaps, growing up in an environment which does not consider violence to be normal for boys? I am not suggesting pthalates aren’t dangerous and don’t cause serious problems with our endocrine systems, but this article seemed rather thin on details. Are girls being feminised as well and displaying more feminine traits? Are there higher rates of premature puberty among the girls who were exposed to higher chemical levels in utero? Were boys showing any physical signs of feminisation or is it all about the toys kids play with?
PlumbLucky commented on Nov 19 09 at 7:19 amHmmm…sounds like this is along the lines of a very long and thorough article that was in hub’s Mens’ Health mag this month. A res near Sarnia, Ontario, in ten years time has seen their ratio of boy/girl births drop from the standard 1:1 to roughly 1:2, along with very high rates of asthma and miscarriage amongst its residents. They’re directly downstream and downwind from “Chemical Valley”, and there are high levels of phthalates, PCBs, mercury/heavy metals, and other such nasties in the land and water there.
abqmom commented on Nov 19 09 at 9:53 amI agree with Ali, I think when this is all said and done we’ll find out that a lot of these chemicals (which haven’t been tested and vetted properly) will be linked to many different medical problems. There’s a reason they make the same products for the
European market without a lot of these chemicals – the Europeans won’t allow them.
Add your take:
Note: Babble is a supportive, diverse community. We encourage a range of opinions,
but any unduly hostile comments will be removed.
Comments are delayed up to 15 minutes
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Wendy Michaels 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
The Walt Disney Company supports Babble as a platform dedicated to honest, engaged, informed, intelligent and open conversation about parenting. However, the opinions expressed on this site are those of individual parents/writers and do not reflect the views of Disney. In addition, content provided on this site is for entertainment or informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or safety advice.
6