More and more kids are developing allergies and asthma. In fact, the first world appears to be in the midst of an allergy epidemic, with numbers increasing across the board:
- The overall rate of food allergy increased almost 20 percent between 1997 and 2007 according to the CDC, with 4 out of 100 children having a reported food or digestive allergy.
- Peanut allergies are on the rise, with as many at 1.5 million sufferers in the US alone.
- As many as 1 in 6 people suffer with seasonal allergies.
All of these numbers have risen exponentially in the past 50 years, and even more quickly in the past 2 decades.
What is happening?
One of the newest theories is that chemical toxins in our world are affecting our immune systems and contributing to the process of allergic sensitization.
In 2004, a Swedish study showed that children with asthma, allergic rhinitis and eczema were shown to have higher exposure to phthalates. The phthalate family of chemicals are a modern success story; they are used in thousands of products, from personal care products like nail polish and cosmetics, dyes, PVC plastic (such as vinyl tiles), carpet tiles, fake leather and some adhesives. You can even find phthalates masquerading as “fragrance” in household cleaners, dish detergents, shampoo, body wash and bubble bath.
So how did these allergic kids get their exposure? Through common house dust! Where researchers found higher levels of of phthalates and PVC plastic in house dust, children had symptoms of allergy, asthma and eczema (versus a control group of non-allergic children). The exposure levels for allergic kids were not unusually high; rather, they fell within the range of what is normal in the modern household.
Phthalates are now considered a “global pollutant”, due to leaching from plastic products. There are a number of phthalates in use, but the Swedish study only looked at three common ones: BBzP, DEHP and di-n-butylphthalate.
BBzP was most highly associated with allergic symptoms; DEHP showed a link with asthma. The researchers did not find a link between asthma or allergies and di-n-butylphthalate.
So, what does this say about plastics and allergies? The implication is that plastics (and plasticizers, which give plastic its final structural integrity) could be part of what is creating our more allergic world.
What about other plastics? We’ll explore that in our upcoming blog posts.
Sources: CBC; Kids With Food Allergies; Generation Rescue; WebMD
