An April 2007 piece by the Heartland Institute's James M. Taylor quotes ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan on phthalates:
"The American Council on Science and Health [ACSH] did a blue-ribbon panel report, including former surgeon General C. Everett Koop, on the subject of phthalates and health about four years ago," said ACSH President Elizabeth Whelan. "We could find no evidence that phthalates pose any risk to human health."
Whelan sharply disagreed with the assertion that children are particularly vulnerable to phthalates and other chemicals.
"In most cases children are no more susceptible than the general population," Whelan said. "We wrote a whole book on the topic of child exposure. It is an issue where environmentalist activists try to get around the science by playing the fear card and attempting to appeal to the protective emotions of adults toward their children."
See also: ACSH's related reports, Health Claims Against Cosmetics: How Do They Look in the Light? and Are Children More Vulnerable to Environmental Chemicals?, plus the comments of the ACSH panel on phthalates.
