General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsYour Nail Polish Could Be Disrupting Your Hormone System
Your Nail Polish Could Be Disrupting Your Hormone System
As my 10-year old daughter handed me her sleeping bag and pillow after the spa party, I noticed that her nails were decorated with multi-colored stickers. She said that she knew I worked in environmental health and wouldnt want her to get her nails painted.
I cringed but simultaneously rejoiced. I had officially become that momthe one whose kid passed on nail polish because it might be toxic. I was especially relieved when I saw the latest report from the Environmental Working Group (EWG), the nonprofit research and advocacy organization where I am executive director.
That report, called Nailed: Endocrine Disruptor in Nail Polish Gets in Womens Bodies, reaffirmed my daughters choice to skip nail polish. It recounted the results of a scientific study co-authored by researcher Heather Stapleton of Duke University and EWG toxicologist Johanna Congleton that found that a chemical added to nail polish to make it more flexible and chip-resistant got into the bodies of all 26 women who volunteered to paint their nails for the study. The evidence showed up in their urine within half a day.
These findings could have serious implications for nail polish users, especially for children, tweens and teens. Scientists suspect that the chemical at issuetriphenyl phosphate, or TPHPdisrupts the hormone system. Researchers have linked hormone disruptors such as TPHP to early onset of puberty, neurodevelopmental problems and obesity. The last thing girls need in their bodies as they are developing rapidly is something that may play havoc with their hormones. Whats worse, nail art is all the rage among the vulnerable age group. The nail industry estimates that nine out of 10 girls between the ages 12 and 14 use nail products, sometimes daily.
These girls are likely to have been exposed to TPHP from multiple sources over years. It is often used as a fire retardant infused into foam furniture. From furniture, it and other fire retardant chemicals migrate into household dust, and from there, into peopleespecially children. EWG biomonitoring tests conducted in 2008 discovered that babies and toddlers, who play on the floor, typically had triple the amounts of fire retardant chemicals in their bodies as their mothers. A 2014 study by Duke and EWG found that childrens exposure to TPHP was on average nearly three times that of adults. Evidence of the chemical was found in all 26 children tested in the 2014 study.
. . . .
http://msmagazine.com/blog/2015/10/21/your-nail-polish-could-be-disrupting-your-hormone-system/
KT2000
(20,577 posts)the toxic chemicals in personal care products can have an effect on health and who we are. Endocrine disrupting chemicals are changing us and it is not just things like cancer and diabetes. If a hormone receptor on a cell is blocked by chemicals we are exposed to - even as fetuses - it can go two ways. One, it could tell the body it is loaded with that hormone, such as estrogen, or it can block that hormone. That is what the EPA is trying to get chemical companies to test for but they are still dragging their feet.
Exposure to an estrogen mimicking chemicals creates a dilemma -
If we are flooded with estrogen - how has that changed us.
If estrogen is blocked - how has that changed us.
niyad
(113,315 posts)exactly what they are doing to us.
SoCalDem
(103,856 posts)and many other "pharmacosmetics"..
Ilsa
(61,695 posts)I sense it on my nails. It's a cold/burning feeling.