On 23rd January, 2019, the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) published its assessment finding that disposable diapers exceed chemical safety thresholds.
It warns that there are “several chemicals for which safety threshold values were exceeded“…
The outcome is that ANSES recommends “eliminating these latter or reducing their levels as much as possible in disposable diapers.”
The first safety assessment by a health and safety agency in the world
This expert assessment is significant because it “is the first time ever that baby diaper safety risks have been assessed by a health and safety agency anywhere in the world.”
French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety
The results of this study are concerning for parents not only in France, but in many other countries. Many large multinational companies, including some of those within the 23 samples of this assessment, sell their products on markets in different countries.
Yet this assessment is not the only one to reveal that chemicals in disposable diapers exceed safety thresholds, and the harm caused by this. Previous studies have proven links with causing and worsening asthma, links with male infertility due to overheating testicles, as reported in the British Medical Journal, and to causing allergic skin reactions.
What chemicals in disposable diapers are of most concern?
The report from ANSES with greater detail on the scientific findings can be found here. I read the report and some main highlights of the assessment are that two bodies conducting the research on 23 single-use diaper products sold in France found that they contained volatile organic compounds (VOCs), pesticides, formaldehyde, dioxins, furans and DL-PCBs, fragrances, and PAHs in the elastics. These chemicals in disposable diapers have been proven to be linked with immune and reproductive system damage, testicular cancer, respiratory problems, and allergic reactions on the skin.
Of additional concern is the use of glyphosate, which is the most popular garden weedkiller in the world, recently in the news and found to have caused a groundskeeper’s terminal cancer. There are approximately 8,000 other lawsuits pending on glyphosate;
“It should be noted that, of the pesticides found in these products, the majority are currently prohibited in the EU (lindane and quintozene since 2000, hexachlorobenzene since 2004), with the exception of glyphosate which is authorised in France and the EU.“
French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety
While these disposable diapers exceed chemical safety thresholds, findings reveal that many of the chemicals detected are “not intentionally added by the manufacturers, with the exception of fragrances. The majority of the chemicals… can either be the result of raw-material contamination (e.g. pesticides) or be formed during manufacturing processes such as bleaching or bonding (e.g. DL-PCBs, furans and dioxins)”. “Contaminants were found both in ‘eco-friendly’ diaper products and in other diaper products”
The main conclusion is that “hazardous chemicals have been found in these diapers” and “health thresholds [are] being exceeded for several substances. Therefore, to date and in the current state of knowledge, it is not possible to rule out a health risk associated with the wearing of single-use diapers.”
What does the Agency recommend?
In future the Agency recommends:
- eliminating or reducing as much as possible the presence of these various undesirable substances;
- developing a more stringent regulatory framework to limit their presence;
- introducing measurement [of chemicals] campaigns for all products on the market;
- eliminating the use of all fragrances;
- better controlling the origin of natural raw materials that can become contaminated even before manufacture;
- improving bleaching phases for materials which could be undertaken without any chlorinated agents;
- conducting studies to obtain concrete data on the absorption of chemicals from the nappy to the baby’s skin.
According to the ANSES assessment, the fragrances and dyes in diapers may be harmful, yet it may be possible to buy diapers in your local market that are fragrance-free and that have no colorful patterns. This is one way to cut down on the number of chemicals contained in the diapers that your baby is exposed to.
As a parent, what can you do?
Given the knowledge gained from these studies that disposable diapers exceed chemical safety thresholds, parents might consider a switch to cloth diapering. If so, a couple of excellent resources for more information, tips and advice on cloth diapering can be found at:
They explain the different types available and their pros and cons.
How we cloth diaper in our family
Personally speaking, I love our little g diapers* that we use on our baby. They look great, they fit baby pretty well, we’ve never had a poop leak (although we’ve had a few little pee leaks which isn’t such a big deal), and, over the course of their lifetime, will work out cheaper than buying disposable diapers.
On the costs of cloth diapering versus disposable diapers, Money Crashers in the US estimate a typical family can spend around $1,440 to $2,880 (depending on brand purchased) per baby for three years (approx 6,000 diapers) on disposable diapers. I would estimate we have spent about $1,000 on our diapers – including the cute cotton shells, extra snap-ins, reusable inserts, laundry detergent and the water and electricity costs of doing laundry over the past 9 months. Also keep in mind that you can use these diapers with any other children you may have in the future, reducing the cost per baby even further.
We bought the outer cotton shell and the snap-in pouch from g diapers, but decided to buy our inserts from a small mom-run company, Wooly Booly Designs, that tailor make the inserts for g diapers. They fit the diapers very well, and are fairly absorbent. There is the choice of either flannel or fleece (we chose flannel since we live in a mostly hot climate), and a range of patterns are available.
We use a Planetwise wet bag for getting out and about with cloth diapers, and for travel. At home we use a Dekor Plus diaper pail with two reusable Dekor cloth diaper pail liner bags that you can throw in the wash with the dirty diapers. We don’t use a cloth diapering service, we just put them in the wash ourselves, but these services are a great option for those who may not have time, energy and/or desire to wash the diapers at home. Typically we run a load with the diapers every 1 – 3 days, depending on our usage and on how busy our day is.
Since we haven’t managed to be as good at potty-training as Vietnamese parents seems to be, beginning at 9 months by using a whistling technique – so until then we will continue with our cloth diapering!
*I receive no money or any benefit-in-kind from sharing any links – I include them in my post only to provide potentially helpful information and save readers time on researching options.