Phthalates, bisphenols, parabens, and triclocarban in feminine hygiene products from the United States and their implications for human exposure

Overview

Gao and Kannan measured 24 endocrine-disrupting chemicals in 77 feminine hygiene products purchased in the Albany, New York area. The analyte panel was phthalates, parabens, bisphenols, and triclocarban; the study did not measure lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), arsenic (As), mercury (Hg), nickel (Ni), aluminum (Al), chromium (Cr), tin (Sn), Sb, uranium (U), or any other heavy-metal analyte. This page is therefore a product-occurrence context source only, useful for feminine-care exposure-method precedent and product-category routing, not for heavy-metal occurrence pools.

Key numbers

The product set comprised pads (n = 18), panty liners (n = 13), tampons (n = 12), wipes (n = 12), bactericidal creams and solutions (n = 14), deodorant sprays (n = 4), and powders (n = 4), purchased during February-March 2019 from supermarkets in and around Albany, New York. The products came from 47 popular brands, but this page reports category-level results only.

Table 1 reports phthalate concentrations as ng/g sample weight. Median and range for sum of nine phthalates (Σ9Phthalate) were:

For the phthalate sub-panel, DMP, DEP, DBP, DIBP, and DEHP were detected in 100% of pads, panty liners, tampons, and wipes. Table 1 reports panty-liner medians of DMP 249 ng/g, DEP 386 ng/g, DIBP 299 ng/g, DBP 393 ng/g, and DEHP 164 ng/g. Tampons had the highest DEHP median among the absorbent products, 267 ng/g, with a DEHP range of 64.1-4680 ng/g.

Table 2 reports paraben concentrations as ng/g. Median and range for sum of six parabens (Σ6Paraben) were:

The source highlights MeP, EtP, and PrP as the major parabens. In bactericidal creams and solutions, median MeP, EtP, and PrP were 2840, 743, and 278 ng/g, respectively; Table 2’s abstract summary gives EtP as 734 ng/g, while the table line gives 743, so the table value is used here and the source-side discrepancy is retained.

Table 3 reports bisphenols and triclocarban (TCC) as ng/g. Σ8Bisphenol was highest in panty liners, median 21.1 ng/g with range < LOD-160 ng/g; pads, tampons, and deodorant sprays had medians 5.59, 5.56, and 5.20 ng/g, respectively. TCC ranged from < LOD to 40.2 ng/g across all products; bactericidal creams/solutions and deodorant sprays had TCC detection frequencies of 46% and 50%.

Table 4 reports dermal absorption dose estimates as ng/kg-bw/day. Under the normal-skin absorption assumptions, median total phthalate doses were 0.250 for pads, 0.844 for panty liners, and 1.309 ng/kg-bw/day for tampons; median total paraben doses were 0.322, 0.499, and 0.493 ng/kg-bw/day; median total bisphenol doses were 0.039, 0.097, and 0.064 ng/kg-bw/day. The text states that under a 100% absorption scenario, feminine hygiene products contributed 27.9% of total phthalate exposure, with tampons, panty liners, and pads accounting for 15.2%, 9.8%, and 2.9% of total phthalate exposure, respectively.

Methods (brief)

Samples were analyzed within one week of collection. For pads and panty liners, only the skin-contacting surface layer was analyzed; for other products, the entire product was analyzed. Phthalates were measured by Agilent 7890A GC coupled to Agilent 5975C MS. Parabens, bisphenols, and TCC were measured by Shimadzu HPLC coupled to API 3200 ESI-MS/MS. QA/QC included two method blanks and two matrix-spike samples per batch of 20 samples, internal-standard recovery correction, procedural-blank subtraction, phthalate LOQs of 2-10 ng/g, and paraben/bisphenol/TCC LOQs of 0.1-0.4 ng/g. The paper does not report any elemental method, digestion, ICP-MS, ICP-OES, AAS, or heavy-metal analysis.

Implications

Microbiome: The paper mentions bacterial vaginosis only as a possible EDC-related research area in the conclusion; it does not measure microbiome endpoints.

Related evidence

• Menstrual pads (disposable, panty liners, intralabial pads, reusable menstrual pads)
• Menstrual tampons (scented/unscented; applicator tested as distinct component)
• Feminine wipes/towelettes
• Intimate washes/cleansers
• Feminine deodorants (leave-on and rinse-off)
• Dusting/talc powders (adult)

Update history

The five most recent substantive edits to this page, classified major (evidence or structure moved), correction (a published value or statement was wrong and has been fixed), or minor (narrative rewritten without changing the underlying evidence). Each description is derived from what the edit did to this page; the linked commit is the authoritative record, routine regeneration passes are excluded, and the full version history lives in git.