It isn't the first time phthalates have earned headlines. In 1998, U.S. manufacturers removed them from soft baby rattles and teething toys after European countries banned their use because the chemicals leach out of the plastic and into our babies. Some phthalates can disrupt normal hormonal development. I can type those words and find myself thinking more about whether I've misspelled phthalate than whether I'm poisoning my children. Part of that reaction comes from feeling intimidated by the clinical language of science, but part of it is simple denial that we are agents of our own destruction.
Plastic is a wondrous substance.
Our lives have been lighter, more colorful, more convenient because of plastic. Plastic represented progress, and it's this same progress that's enabled us to learn more about how plastic behaves. Some of the clingy plastic wrap that seals so many items of food from the grocery store contains phthalates, and research has shown that some chemicals can leach into food on contact. The good news, I guess, is that few brands of household plastic wraps contain the specific phthalates now under fire. The plastics industry contends that most scares are ill-founded and happen only in rats, anyway.