Matthew Renwick ¹ Anette Kobach Bølling ^2,3* Erin Shellington ⁴ Chris Rider ^3* Miriam L. Diamond ^5,6* Chris Carlsten ^1,3,4*

• ¹ Division of Respiratory Medicine, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
• ² Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH), Oslo, Oslo, Norway
• ³ Air Pollution Exposure Laboratory, Division of Respiratory Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
• ⁴ Legacy for Airway Health, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, Vancouver, Canada
• ⁵ Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• ⁶ School of Environment, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

Ortho-phthalates (herein referred to as phthalates) are synthetic chemicals used in thousands of different everyday products and materials. Nearly ubiquitous environmental exposure is reflected by phthalate metabolites in the urine of almost all Canadians. However, phthalate exposure tends to be higher amongst people of low socioeconomic status and ethnic minorities. Substantial evidence shows that certain phthalates cause harm to human health, particularly developing fetuses and children.Governments vary in their approach to assessing and managing risks associated with phthalates. Canada continues to take a more permissive stance on phthalate regulations compared to the EU and some US states. We argue that the recent Canadian national risk assessment on phthalates does not appropriately reflect the growing evidence demonstrating harm to human health from phthalate exposure and does not adequately consider the evidence showing higher exposures faced by vulnerable populations. Canadians would benefit from adopting a more stringent regulatory approach to phthalates. Specifically, Canada should expand phthalate restrictions to apply to all consumer products, implement sunset dates towards eliminating the use of existing phthalates, and mandate publicly available evidence of no harm for phthalate alternatives. Canadian alignment on phthalate regulations with the EU and a growing number of US states could encourage other countries to follow suit.