Common chemicals found in shampoos, known as phthalates, have been linked to brain damage in babies when pregnant mothers are exposed, with a new study showing these substances cross the placenta and disrupt critical brain development processes. This alarming connection highlights the potential risks of everyday products on newborn health.

Researchers from Emory University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Columbia University published a study revealing that phthalate exposure during pregnancy can alter a baby’s metabolism and impair brain development. By interfering with key biological processes, these chemicals pose significant concerns about the safety of widely used personal care products.

Scitechdaily.com reports: Phthalates are a group of chemical compounds commonly used as plasticizers. They are found in a wide range of everyday products, including shampoos, soaps, detergents, and plastic containers used for food and beverages. Previous studies have shown that phthalates can disrupt hormone activity and have been linked to various health concerns in both mothers and their children.

This latest research, led by scientists at Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health and published in Nature Communications, is the first to provide direct evidence that prenatal exposure to phthalates can alter an infant’s metabolic profile at birth.

What The Experts Say

“This was the first study to demonstrate that a mother’s exposure to phthalates can impact their baby’s metabolome and also the first to show that these biological changes can impact newborn development. This is important because there is a common belief that the placenta protects the baby from a lot of harmful substances, but this study supports that phthalates are able to cross through the placenta and actually impact the baby’s biology before they are even born and negatively affect their development over time,” said Susan Hoffman, PhD, study first author and recent graduate of the Epidemiology PhD program at the Rollins School of Public Health.

“We are seeing that once pregnant women are exposed to phthalates, these chemicals not only enter their body and disrupt maternal metabolism, but these exposures also impact the metabolism and neurobehavioral functioning of newborns. And we found these substances are staying with them in the body after they are born, as we did see some indication of a biological disruption occurring among the newborn babies that has a further impact on the neurodevelopment system,” says Donghai Liang, PhD, study lead author and associate professor of environmental health at the Rollins School of Public Health. 

Reference: “Impact of prenatal phthalate exposure on newborn metabolome and infant neurodevelopment” by Susan S. Hoffman, Ziyin Tang, Anne Dunlop, Patricia A. Brennan, Thompson Huynh, Stephanie M. Eick, Dana B. Barr, Blake Rushing, Susan L. McRitchie, Susan Sumner, Kaitlin R. Taibl, Youran Tan, Parinya Panuwet, Grace E. Lee, Jasmin Eatman, Elizabeth J. Corwin, P. Barry Ryan, Dean P. Jones and Donghai Liang, 2 April 2025, Nature Communications.
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-57273-z