You might be considering personal care products like soap, perfume or moisturizing lotion as  gifts. But be aware that a group of hormone disrupting chemicals called phthalates are often found in such items; and phthalates have been linked with an increased risk for diabetes!

In a 2010 study, researchers evaluated data on 2,350 women to explore the association between phthalates found in the urine and diabetes. They found that although some phthalates had a more diabetes-inducing effect than others, overall, the more phthalates in a woman’s urine, the greater her likelihood of having diabetes. Those women with the highest levels of the two most diabetes-inducing phthalates were almost twice as likely to have diabetes as the women with the lowest levels.

Diabetes is an out-of-control epidemic, and a major cause of disability and death. According to estimates made by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), diabetes costs our nation $245 billion annually. More than 12% of US adults over the age of twenty are thought to have diabetes, while almost 26% of those over age 65 have the disease.

And the number of diabetics just keeps growing.

Back in 2001, scientists at the CDC warned that if trends were not reversed, 29 million people would be diabetic by the year 2050, up from 11 million in the year 2000.

Well, here we are in 2014, and, according to the CDC’s most recent report, there are already 29.1 million estimated diabetics in the US. A more recent CDC press release now predicts 1/3 of all American adults may be diabetic by the year 2050.

While obesity is often blamed for these rising numbers, not all diabetics are overweight, and evidence has been accumulating that hormone disrupting toxins like phthalates are a major risk factor for both weight gain and diabetes. In fact, it’s been suggested that toxins may be the major driver of BOTH overweight and diabetes.

More than 75% of the US population has been found to have detectable levels of phthalates in their urine, but women tend to have higher levels than men. It may be because women use more phthalate-containing bodycare products. Phthalates are also found in hair spray, deodorant, nail polish and mascara.

So how can you tell if your favorite personal care product contains phthalates? Unfortunately the label won’t always tell you. Phthalates are often part of a fragrance formula; since these formulas are proprietary, the manufacturer doesn’t have to disclose what’s in them