As of: February 9, 2024, 9:49 p.m
By: Fabian Hartmann
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The UBA recently found increased traces of plasticizers in children's urine.
Now there are first clues as to where they could come from.
Berlin - At the end of January (January 31, 2024), the State Office for Nature, Environment and Consumer Protection of North Rhine-Westphalia (LANUV) reported in a press release that it had found residues of a banned plasticizer in urine samples from children.
This is the substance mono-n-hexyl phthalate, MnHexP for short.
MnHexP can be formed as a breakdown product in the body, as a so-called metabolite, of the di-n-hexyl phthalate (DnHexP) and is considered to belong to the phthalate group of substances.
These are used as plasticizers in plastic products such as toys.
This can give the plastic certain properties such as more elasticity
to lend.
However, over time, the plasticizers can escape from the products and, under certain circumstances, be absorbed by people.
What makes plasticizers so dangerous for humans?
According to the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety, DnHexP is used not only in toys, but also in cosmetics and food contact materials, such as packaging.
As early as 2020, the furniture giant Ikea published a brochure about plasticizers as a warning to its customers.
The plasticizer DnHexP has been on the list of substances of very high concern in the European Union since 2013.
The main reason is that the substance, like other plasticizers, can endanger human fertility.
In 2020, DnHexP was included in Annex XIV of the REACH Regulation.
This means that since 2023 the substance may no longer be used in the EU without special approval.
Traces of dangerous plasticizers in urine samples – what is the extent of the contamination?
According to the Federal Environment Agency (UBA), there are now initial indications that the MnHexP residues found in children's urine could possibly come from sunscreen.
“In our first exploratory analyses, we see a connection between exposure to MnHexP and cosmetics, including sunscreen in particular,” explained toxicologist Dr.
Marike Kolossa-Gehring from UBA on Thursday.
At the same time, the toxicologist also warned against using sunscreen because of the suspected case.
Since it protects the skin, avoiding sunscreen does more harm than good to the skin.
Sunscreen is applied on the beach © IMAGO/xafrica_imagesx
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The Federal Environment Agency discovered evidence of the dangerous plasticizer in the urine of numerous people in Germany.
The UBA is currently collecting further data on this in a Germany-wide study - but now from the adult population.
According to the latest data, residues of the dangerous plasticizer were discovered in 37 percent of the urine samples.
According to its own information, the Federal Environment Agency is currently analyzing the high MnHexP pollution levels together with EU authorities.
How could the plasticizers get into the European Union despite a ban?
But how could the plasticizers reach Europe in such large quantities when DnHexP has been on the list of particularly dangerous substances since 2013 and its use was even banned throughout the EU in 2020?
The toxicologist Kolossa-Gehring described the search for the origin of the pollutant as “detective work”.
Under certain circumstances, the substance could still occur within the EU despite the ban, for example in imported products, it said.
Because these are not affected by the EU-wide approval requirement.
“We saw in research that it had theoretically previously been used in niche applications – for small seals or special types of rubber gloves.
But actually it couldn’t be on the market because there is no registration and no approval for the substance in Europe,” emphasized Kolossa-Gehring in an interview with
Südwestdeutscher Rundfunk
(SWR).
But old sunscreens that were manufactured in the EU years ago could still contain the plasticizers.
So that consumers know which products are affected and can avoid them accordingly, a larger number of them are listed in the SCIP database of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).
Traces of the plasticizer are increasingly being found in children
In North Rhine-Westphalia, the LANUV experiments were carried out on kindergarten children.
In a comparison with urine samples from children from previous years, they also found that children's urine samples today contain significantly more traces of plasticizers.
While the researchers found hardly any plasticizers in the urine samples in 2015, according to Kolossa-Gehring, they were already at 26 percent in 2017 and 2018.
In 2021, contamination with the plasticizer was finally found in 60 percent of the children's urine examined.
However, there is no emerging trend for adults yet.
“We are currently investigating this with a time trend analysis in samples from the environmental sample bank,” adds the toxicologist.
(Fabian Hartmann)