Paraben Exposure and Childhood Obesity Risk in Preschoolers: UPLC-MS/MS Insights from Recent Study

While exposure to environmental pollutants has long been connected to obesogenic effects, evidence in young children remains sparse. Parabens, widely used as antimicrobial preservatives in personal care products, are suspected of disrupting satiety hormones during early life and potentially influencing long-term metabolism and weight regulation. A joint study between Hasselt University (Diepenbeek, Belgium), the University of Liege (Liege, Belgium), and Imperial College (London, United Kingdom) conducted a cross-sectional study analyzing urinary methyl, ethyl, propyl, and butylparaben (MeP, EtP, PrP, BuP) levels in 4–6-year-old children from the Environage birth cohort using ultra-performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS).A paper based on their research was published in Environmental Research (1).

The Environage birth cohort study was designed to carry out prospective epidemiological follow-up as from the newborn stage for the attaining of evidence on the interactions between participants and environmental exposures with processes of aging including mitochondrial function, telomere length, epigenetic mechanisms and DNA repair as the core axis of aging.

The increase in childhood obesity has surged dramatically over the past four decades across the world, mirroring the rise in adult obesity (2); its presence predisposes children to long-term health issues such as cardiovascular and metabolic diseases in adulthood (3,4). The environmental obesogen hypothesis was recently introduced, proposing that the exposure to endocrine-disrupting synthetic chemicals in personal care products during prenatal or early life stages possibly predisposes individuals to increased fat storage and obesity (5,6).

For over a century, parabens (defined as organic compounds that are commonly used as preservatives in pharmaceutical and cosmetic products [7]) have been used as low-cost antimicrobial agents (8,9). As a result, absorption through the skin forms the primary exposure route for parabens (10), with internal exposure to different paraben esters in European children is estimated to be between 0.20 and 1.01 mg/kg bw/day (11). Since the early 2000s, there has been concern expressed regarding parabens and their endocrine-disrupting properties (12–15), suggesting that widespread exposure to these compounds may contribute to the rising metabolic epidemic (16,17).

In this study, more than 96% of the BuP measurements were below the limit of quantification, the researchers state that only the values of MeP, EtP, and PrP were used by the research team for their statistical analysis. A discovered doubling in PrP was associated with an 5.34% increase in leptin (a peptide hormone released from adipose tissue and encoded by the obese (ob) gene [19]), and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) indicated a positive linear association between parabens and leptin. Additional sensitivity analyses were indicative of sex-specific differences in the relationship between parabens, body mass index (BMI), and leptin levels (1).

While leptin is primarily involved in regulation of body fat stores, its chronic elevation is associated with adverse metabolic outcomes, leading the researchers to believe that theirfindings may point to leptin as a biological mechanism linking parabens with the growing obesity epidemic in children. Given these results, the researchers state that the reassessment of the safety of parabens in personal care products, particularly for young children, warrants consideration (1).

References

1. Reimann, B.; De Ruyter, T.; Sleurs, H. et al. Paraben Exposures and Satiety Hormones in Preschool Children: An ENVIRONAGE Study. Environ. Res. 2025, 122300. DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2025.122300

2. Simmonds, M.; Llewellyn, A.; Owen ,C. G. et al. Predicting Adult Obesity from Childhood Obesity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Obes. Rev. 2016, 17 (2), 95-107. DOI: 10.1111/obr.12334

3. Lindberg, L.; Danielsson, P.; Persson, M. et al. Association of Childhood Obesity with Risk of Early All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality: A Swedish Prospective Cohort Study. PLoS Med. 2020, 17 (3), e1003078. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1003078

4. Reilly, J. J.; Kelly, J. Long-Term Impact of Overweight and Obesity in Childhood and Adolescence on Morbidity and Premature Mortality in Adulthood: Systematic Review. Int. J. Obes. (Lond) 2011, 35 (7), 891-898. DOI: 10.1038/ijo.2010.222

5. Darbre, P. D. Endocrine Disruptors and Obesity. Curr. Obes. Rep. 2017, 6 (1), 18-27. DOI: 10.1007/s13679-017-0240-4

6. Grün, F.; Blumberg, B. Endocrine Disrupters as Obesogens. Mol. Cell Endocrinol. 2009, 304 (1-2), 19-29. DOI: 10.1016/j.mce.2009.02.018

7. Parabens. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraben (accessed 2025-07-09)

8. Ana, F.; Paula, F. A. Parabens Paradoxes in Cosmetic Formulations: A Review. Int. J. Med. Res. Pharm. Sci. 2016, 8, 3. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.61076

9. Final Amended Report on the Safety assessment of Methylparaben, Ethylparaben, Propylparaben, Isopropylparaben, Butylparaben, Isobutylparaben, and Benzylparaben as Used in Cosmetic Products. Int. J. Toxicol. 2008, 27 (s4), 1-82. DOI: 10.1080/10915810802548359

10. Soni, M. G.; Carabin, I. G.; Burdock, G. A. Safety Assessment of Esters of p-Hydroxybenzoic Acid (Parabens). Food Chem. Toxicol. 2005, 43 (7), 985-1015. DOI: 10.1016/j.fct.2005.01.020

11. Gosens, I.; Delmaar, C. J.; Ter Burg, W. et al. Aggregate Exposure Approaches for Parabens in Personal Care Products: A Case Assessment for Children Between 0 and 3 Years Old. J. Expo. Sci. Environ. Epidemiol. 2014, 24 (2), 208-214. DOI: 10.1038/jes.2013.33

12. Giulivo, M.; Lopez de Alda, M.; Capri, E. et al. Human Exposure to Endocrine Disrupting Compounds: Their Role in Reproductive Systems, Metabolic Syndrome and Breast Cancer. A Review. Environ. Res. 2016, 151, 251-264. DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2016.07.011

13. Nowak, K.; Ratajczak-Wrona, W.; Górska, M. et al. Parabens and Their Effects on the Endocrine System. Mol. Cell Endocrinol. 2018, 474, 238-251. DOI: 10.1016/j.mce.2018.03.014

14. Oishi, S. Effects of Butylparaben on the Male Reproductive System in Rats. Toxicol. Ind. Health 2001, 17 (1), 31-39. DOI: 10.1191/0748233701th093oa

15. Oishi, S. Effects of Propyl Paraben on the Male Reproductive System. Food Chem. Toxicol. 2002, 40 (12), 1807-1813. DOI: 10.1016/s0278-6915(02)00204-1

16. Heindel, J. J.; Blumberg, B. Environmental Obesogens: Mechanisms and Controversies. Annu. Rev. Pharmacol. Toxicol. 2019, 59, 89-106. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-pharmtox-010818-021304

17. Heindel, J. J.; Newbold, R.; Schug, T. T. Endocrine Disruptors and Obesity. Nat. Rev. Endocrinol. 2015, 11 (11), 653-661. DOI: 10.1038/nrendo.2015.163

18. Janssen, B. G.; Madhloum, N.; Gyselaers, W. et al. Cohort Profile: The ENVIRonmental nfluence ON early AGEing (ENVIRONAGE): A Birth Cohort Study. Int. J. Epidemiol. 2017, 46 (5), 1386-1387m. DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyw269

19. Dornbush, S.; Aeddula, N. R. Physiology, Leptin. [Updated 2023 Apr 10]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. StatPearls Publishing; 2025. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK537038/ (accessed 2025-07-09).