Consumer behavior and exposure to parabens, bisphenols, triclosan, dichlorophenols, and benzophenone-3: Results from a crowdsourced biomonitoring study

Nearly all Americans have detectable concentrations of endocrine disrupting chemicals from consumer products in their bodies, and expert panels recommend reducing exposures. To inform exposure reduction, we investigated whether consumers who are trying to avoid certain chemicals in consumer products have lower exposures than those who are not. We also aimed to make exposure biomonitoring more widely available. We enrolled 726 participants in a crowdsourced biomonitoring study. We targeted phenolic compounds-specifically parabens, bisphenol A (BPA) and analogs bisphenol F (BPF) and bisphenol S (BPS), the UV filter benzophenone-3, the anti-microbial triclosan, 2,4-dichlorophenol, and 2,5-dichlorophenol-and collected survey data on consumer products, cleaning habits, and efforts to avoid related chemicals. We investigated associations between 68 self reported exposure behaviors and urine concentrations of ten chemicals, and evaluated whether associations were modified by intention to avoid exposures. A large majority (87%) of participants reported taking steps to limit exposure to specific chemicals, and, overall, participants achieved lower concentrations than the general U.S. population for parabens, BPA, triclosan, and benzophenone-3 but not BPF and BPS. Participants who reported avoiding all four ingredient groups-parabens, triclosan, bisphenols, and fragrances-were twice as likely as others to be in the lowest quartile of cumulative exposure. Avoiding certain products and reading ingredient labels to avoid chemicals was most effective for parabens, triclosan, and benzophenone-3. Avoiding BPA was not effective for reducing bisphenol exposures. Avoiding certain chemicals in products was generally associated with reduced exposure for chemicals listed on labels. Greater ingredient transparency will help consumers who read labels to reduce their exposure to a wider range of potentially harmful chemicals. In order to more equitably address public health, labeling policies should be complemented by regulations that exclude harmful chemicals from consumer products.