You might think that toxic pollutants in air enter the body only through the lungs. But you’d be wrong. For some chemicals, a new study finds, more might enter through skin than through breathing.
Each breath of air can deliver toxic pollutants into the lungs. Blood courses through the lungs’ tiniest airways. There, chemicals from air can enter the blood system. But the body’s biggest organ is the skin. And recent studies have shown that skin might serve as “big sponges for these chemicals,” says John Kissel. He is an environmental engineer at the University of Washington in Seattle.
That research had looked at chemicals that seemed to pass through skin relatively slowly. “But,” Kissel notes, “if the whole body is exposed, then even low rates of exposure can deliver what turns out to be nontrivial amounts of these chemicals.”
One worrisome group of chemicals are phthalates (THAAL-ayts). They are used as solvents and building blocks for plastics. Owing to their widespread use, phthalates are found throughout the environment and in people’s bodies. Babies can even get exposed to these chemicals before they are born. And studies have linked exposure to phthalates with changes in babies and young children. These include changes in mental activity and reproductive organs.
