oli_essenzialiEndocrine disruption is a kind of toxicity studied from relatively few years by health authorities. Endocrine disruptors (ED) may alter hormonal (endocrine), immunitary and reproductive system, in several ways. A lot of everyday chemicals show this tendency, some more (as bisphenol A, some phtalates, PTFE, flame retardants, triclosan, etc.), some less (as parabens). The strenght of some more chemicals (as some essential oils ingredients) need to be assessed: some of them were notified to health supervisory authorities by physicians, other have been toxicologically investigated peer review, but they all need more studies to be classified.

There is a debate about “dosage”: a part of  the scientific community think that ED may be safe if assumed or absorbed in low quantities, less than a specific dosage; on the contrary, other scientists believe in “low dosage hypothesis“, which introduces the possibility of adverse effects (damages to endocrine, immunitary and/or reproductive system) even at very low dosages. EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) suggests to verify the need to apply it case by case: in particular, some chemicals show “suspect” behaviour and must be investigated more carefully.

Among suspect characteristics, in our opinion, bioaccumulation (see this article): if a chemical is assumed at low dosages, but is accumulative, lifelong the safety threshold may be exceeded.
Another reason may be the high diffusion of the chemical in everyday products (foods, detergents, cosmetics, tissue dyes, etc.): if a chemical is an ingredient in a lot of products, even a low concentration one, the daily exposition to it must be counted as the sum of the concentrations in each product.

What we think is that only avoiding exposition to ED is recommendable particularly for kids, both in high and in low dosages. Bensos chose to avoid chemicals suspected to be endocrine disruptors.

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