According to a study published in Environment International [1] by researchers from INSERM, Grenoble Alpes University, and the CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research), cutting back on personal care products — such as shampoos, soaps, and makeup — can reduce the body’s exposure to various chemicals, including endocrine disruptors, within just a few days.
Decreasing use reduces chemical exposures
The researchers instructed around one hundred female students in Grenoble, France, aged 18 to 30, to limit their use of cosmetic products for five days. They were also asked to replace their usual hygiene items — such as soap and toothpaste — with alternatives supplied by the researchers that were free of synthetic phenols, parabens, phthalates, and glycol ethers.
The researchers then compared urine samples collected before and after the five-day period of reduced exposure. The results showed a marked reduction in traces of pollutants: monoethyl phthalate — a compound used to stabilize fragrances — dropped by about 22%, while methylparaben — a preservative considered a potential endocrine disruptor by European authorities — decreased by roughly 30%, according to INSERM.
The researchers also recorded a 39% reduction in urinary bisphenol A (BPA), which is classified as an endocrine disruptor by the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES). BPA has been associated with a range of health concerns, including breast cancer and infertility.
Call for stricter rules
“Bisphenol A has been banned in France since 2005 as an ingredient in personal care and cosmetic products because of its reprotoxic properties. Its presence may instead result from contamination during manufacturing or from contact with packaging materials,” INSERM said in a press release.
The study concludes that these findings could “support the adoption of stricter regulations covering both the composition of personal care products (such as glycol ethers) and the wider manufacturing and packaging processes (including bisphenol A).”
“Among all sources of exposure, personal care and cosmetic products are a significant one, as targeting this source clearly leads to reduced exposure,” one of the study’s authors, INSERM researcher Claire Philippat, told AFP.
“At an individual level, we can mitigate our exposure — at least for the substances we studied. That’s an encouraging message,” she said. “However, we cannot rely solely on individual behavioral changes to reduce these exposures. This underscores the need for strong regulations on chemicals in personal care and cosmetic products,” she added.
Industry calls for caution on conclusions
The French Federation of Beauty Companies (FEBEA), which represents cosmetics manufacturers in France, underscored that the substances cited in the INSERM publication are governed by strict regulatory controls under the European Cosmetics Regulation.
Accordingly, the presence of trace amounts of bisphenol A — resulting from migration from packaging or manufacturing equipment — is permitted only when it is technically unavoidable and has been demonstrated to pose no risk to human health.
FEBEA further noted that, although the INSERM publication is based on a robust experimental protocol, it relies on “several fragile assumptions” when estimating both the health impact of the detected trace levels and the potential benefits of reducing them at a national scale.
