--- title: DEHP BPA Chemicals Cancer: Replacement Chemicals May Be Just As Bad description: New research suggests that DEHP replacement chemicals may have some of the same negative health effects as the chemicals themselves. canonical: https://time.com/3948271/dehp-replacements-health/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-08T22:38:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T09:01:37.639Z article:section: Health og:title: These Plastic Chemicals May Be As Bad As What They Replace og:description: New research suggests that DEHP replacement chemicals may have some of the same negative health effects as the chemicals themselves. og:url: https://time.com/3948271/dehp-replacements-health/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba3428bd3fd00cb0/69885a2a5f570f7b32b1c5e3/dehp-plastic.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3700 og:image:height: 2081 og:image:alt: DEHP Plastic og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: These Plastic Chemicals May Be As Bad As What They Replace twitter:description: New research suggests that DEHP replacement chemicals may have some of the same negative health effects as the chemicals themselves. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba3428bd3fd00cb0/69885a2a5f570f7b32b1c5e3/dehp-plastic.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # These Plastic Chemicals May Be Just As Dangerous As What They Replace > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=8e5bf330-e266-459f-bd47-3fd68b7d200b&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jul 8, 2015 10:38 PM UTC  A worker displays a sports drinks containing a platicizer called DEHP after removing at a supermarket in Taiwan in 2011. A worker displays a sports drinks containing a platicizer called DEHP after removing at a supermarket in Taiwan in 2011. SAM YEH—AFP/Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jul 8, 2015 10:38 PM UTC About a decade ago, consumer plastics manufacturers began to replace a chemical known as DEHP—a probable human carcinogen, according to the [EPA](http://www.epa.gov/ttnatw01/hlthef/eth-phth.html)—from their products. The growing consensus was that the chemical could lead to a number of negative health effects, and its removal was hailed as an advancement in the interest of public health. Now, new research suggests that replacement chemicals may have some of the same negative health effects as DEHP. A [study](http://hyper.ahajournals.org/content/66/2/301.full?sid=be69c579-505c-4e04-a84f-5a4b187da7a6) in the journal _Hypertension_ links high blood pressure and the presence of DINP and DIDP, two replacements for DEHP. Another [study](http://press.endocrine.org/doi/full/10.1210/jc.2015-1686) from the same researchers, published in the _Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism_, found a link between the replacements and insulin resistance. **Read More**: [Why ‘BPA-Free’ May Be Meaningless](http://time.com/3742871/bpa-free-health/) “These data raise substantial concerns about similar health effects due to chemicals used to replace DEHP under the presumption that they don’t have the same, or different, adverse health effects,” says study author Leonardo Trasande, a professor at New York University. “Clearly there’s a need for further research.” Researchers relied on urine and blood samples from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to look for a connection between DEHP replacements and various ailments. The research showed a strong relationship between high levels of the chemicals and both insulin resistance and blood pressure. Both of these conditions are associated with diabetes and other negative health effects. DEHP is not the first chemical to be dumped because of negative health effects only for consumers to learn that the replacements are just as bad. Some manufacturers of consumer products have replaced BPA, another chemical found in plastics, after research has found it to be an endocrine disruptor that damages reproductive health, among other things. It turns out the replacements may have the exact same properties, some [research](http://time.com/3742871/bpa-free-health/) has shown. Trasande says it shouldn’t come as a surprise that chemicals that behave the same way in plastic would have the same side effects. With both BPA and DEHP, replacement chemicals have a nearly identical chemical structure to the original, he says. But eliminating untested chemicals from the supply has proven difficult, at least in part because the federal regulatory structure assumes that chemicals are “innocent until proven guilty,” Trasande says. “What we need here is a reform that tests chemicals proactively before they’re used on the open market,” he says. Until those measures are in place and more research is conducted, Trassande suggests that consumers avoid heating plastics in the microwave and throwing away scratched plastic containers to minimize contamination to food. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3948271/dehp-replacements-health/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3948271/dehp-replacements-health/"},"headline":"These Plastic Chemicals May Be Just As Dangerous As What They Replace","datePublished":"2015-07-08T22:38:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T09:01:37.639Z","description":"Two new studies find that DEHP substitutes behave just like the chemical they replaced","url":"https://time.com/3948271/dehp-replacements-health/","keywords":["toxins","Cancer","health","BPA"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba3428bd3fd00cb0/69885a2a5f570f7b32b1c5e3/dehp-plastic.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba3428bd3fd00cb0/69885a2a5f570f7b32b1c5e3/dehp-plastic.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"DEHP Plastic","caption":"DEHP Plastic","creditText":"SAM YEH—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/toxins/","name":"toxins"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3948271/dehp-replacements-health/","name":"These Plastic Chemicals May Be Just As Dangerous As What They Replace"}}]}] ```