[ 06 July 2004 ]

Suggestions that people are at health risk from wearing flip-flops is nonsense

A statement from the plasticiser industry

There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that adults or children are at any risk from wearing flip-flops.

The two phthalate plasticisers most commonly used are DEHP and DINP, both of which have undergone independent scientific risk assessments. Those risk assessments took into consideration phthalate exposure via skin contact and have concluded that there was no risk to human health.

Using the same calculations agreed by EU member state scientific experts for the DEHP and DINP risk assessments it is possible to calculate maximum levels at which anyone could be exposed from flip-flops.

The length of time that anyone is ever likely to wear flip-flops is probably only around eight hours a day.

However, assuming that a 70 kg adult with European size 43 feet could possibly wear PVC flip-flops made with di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) for as long as 24 hours a day, the levels of exposure would still be about half those which give no cause for concern.

In the case of diisononyl phthalate (DINP) levels of exposure would be several hundred times lower than the accepted tolerable daily intake (TDI).

In the case of a six-year-old child weighing 20 kg and with a corresponding foot size, the same worst-possible case exposure would be very similar in both cases.

To suggest that people are at any risk from wearing flip-flops has absolutely no scientific or medical basis.

It should also be remembered that irrespective of any exposure to phthalates that flip-flop wearers may experience, the alleged health effects from phthalates are also highly questionable. The reproductive effects that have been claimed by Oko-Test have only ever been seen in rodents and not in humans.

Furthermore, a recent study of young adults, known to have been exposed to high levels of phthalates during childhood have shown that none of them were adversely affected up to 20 years later.

Phthalates have been used to plasticise PVC for more than 50 years without a single known case of anyone having been adversely affected.

For further information please contact:

Tim Edgar
European Council for Plasticisers and Intermediates
Avenue E Van Nieuwenhuyse 4,
B-1160 Brussels, Belgium

Telephone: 0032 2 676 7363
Mobile: 0032 475 37 66 93