Hair spray found to be potential culprit in birth defects
An analysis of possible causes of hypospadias, a reproductive birth defect in baby boys in which the urethral opening is abnormally located, has pointed to hair spray as a contributing factor. An English study compared exposures of mothers whose boys were born with the defect with the exposures of mothers whose boys were born without it. In a case-control study, researchers interviewed the mothers of 471 boys with the condition (cases) and 490 without it (controls), assessing their exposure at work and other factors.
When the study team looked for links to hypospadias among 26 different substances ranging from disinfectants to glue and printing ink, it was hairspray that rose to the top.
Boys born to mothers exposed to hair spray at work were more than twice
as likely to be born with hypospadias. More generally, occupational
exposure to phthalates, an ingredient in cosmetics and many other
products, was also associated with a greater risk of the condition.
The authors did not collect information on the mothers’ actual
phthalate exposures or the phthalate content of hair sprays. However,
testing by the Environmental Working Group in 2002 found phthalates in
78 percent of hair sprays tested.
A link between hypospadias and phthalates would be consistent with
numerous laboratory studies that have found defects including
hypospadias in rodents exposed to some phthalates.
The study – Endocrine Disruptors in the Workplace, Hair Spray, Folate
Supplementation, and the Risk of Hypospadias: Case-control Study – by
G. Ormond was published online Nov. 20, 2008 in Environmental Health
Perspectives.
Erika Schreder is a staff scientist at Washington Toxics Coalition, where she leads the Coalition’s research on toxic chemicals in children’s products. In 2005 and 2006, she led the research for the Toxic-Free Legacy Coalition’s Pollution in People study. She has a Masters in Resource Ecology and Management from the University of Michigan and a B.S. in molecular biology from MIT.
