![[logo] US EPA](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090812232240im_/http://www.epa.gov/epafiles/images/logo_epaseal.gif){kind=logo}
Featured Story
Site Navigation
 |
Research Project Search
EPA STAR Researcher Shanna Swan awarded EHP's 2009 Paper of the Year
EHP Editor-In-Chief Hugh Tilson has identified Star Researcher Shanna Swan's paper “Decrease in Anogenital Distance among Male Infants with Prenatal Phthalate Exposure” by Shanna H. Swan, Katharina M. Main, Fan Liu, Sara L. Stewart, Robin L. Kruse, Antonia M. Calafat, Catherine S. Mao, J. Bruce Redmon, Christine L. Ternand, Shannon Sullivan, J. Lynn Teague, and the Study for Future Families Research Team (Swan et al. 2005), as EHP Paper of the year.
EHP chose this paper because of its high impact in both the research and legislative realms since its publication in 2005. Swan's paper was the first to demonstrate an association between pregnant women’s exposure to phthalates and adverse effects on genital development in their male children. These findings are important because humans are commonly exposed to phthalates found in a wide variety of consumer products, including soft vinyl items, medical tubing and IV bags, and a variety of personal care products such as perfume, lotion, shampoo, cosmetics, nail polish, and hairspray.
Swan et al. (2005) has had an impact on phthalate legislation such as the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, which dramatically reduced the amount of six phthalates (including DEHP and DBP) that are permissible in children’s toys. This research was also cited heavily in support of regulations passed in California, Vermont, and Washington and introduced in Maine, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Minnesota, Illinois, Oregon, and Hawaii.
Full text of the EHP editorial (PDF) 
For more information about this Star Research Project: http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncer_abstracts/index.cfm/fuseaction/display.abstractDetail/abstract/1950/report/0
For more Environmental Health Perspectives "Researcher Perspective" Podcasts with Host Ernie Hood: http://www.ehponline.org/docs/admin/podcasts.html
Full text of the 2005 publication: http://www.ehponline.org/members/2005/8100/8100.pdf