Reducing Latina girls' exposure to hormone disrupting chemicals in cosmetics: The HERMOSA Study

Objectives: The Health & Environmental Research in Make-up of Salinas Adolescents (HERMOSA) Study is an intervention to examine Latina girls’ exposure to hormone disrupting chemicals in cosmetics and personal care products and to determine methods for lowering this exposure.  

Methods: Study participants were 14-18 year old girls (N=100) living in predominantly Latino neighborhoods of Salinas, California. At the initial visit, participants provided detailed information on all personal care products use in the previous 48 hours and a urine sample for measurement of phthalates, triclosan, parabens, and oxybenzone – 4 common endocrine disruptors found in personal care products.  The girls were then given alternate, low-chemical products to use for 3 days and then returned for a follow-up visit to determine whether urinary endocrine disruptors levels had decreased. This project is a youth-based, participatory research project and so all recruitment and data collection was performed by Youth Researchers from the community who also helped with project design.

Results:  Preliminary analyses show that urinary metabolites of diethyl phthalate, used in fragrances, decreased significantly during the intervention (baseline geometric mean (GM) = 40.3 ng/mL vs. post-intervention GM = 31.7 ng/mL, one-side p-value = 0.03).  No changes were seen in metabolites of two other phthalates (dibutyl phthalate and di-isobutyl phthalate) also used in personal care products.  Future analyses will compare triclosan, parabens, and oxybenzone concentrations before and after the intervention.  We will also present associations between use of specific personal care products and urinary phthalate, triclosan, parabens, and oxybenzone concentrations.

Conclusions:  This study demonstrates that exposure to certain endocrine disruptors may be reduced by simple changes in personal care product routines.  Next steps include Youth Researchers leading an environmental health campaign to disseminate study findings via presentations, social media, and educational materials.