Personal care products are among the largest everyday sources of exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and high schoolers who follow social media influencers or watch beauty tutorials seem to use considerably more of them, according to Rutgers researchers.
In a Rutgers-led study published in the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology, researchers conducted a survey of product usage among 143 students at Princeton High School in New Jersey. They found that more time on social media and greater engagement with beauty-related content predicted more usage. After researchers accounted for gender, grade, race, ethnicity and parents' education, they found students who followed influencers with product lines reported using 30% more products in the previous 24 hours. Those who watched hair or beauty tutorials used 40% more.
It was a novel finding that researchers on the study team credited a pair of then-high school students, Gabrielle Kaputa and Vita Moss-Wang, who helped design and conduct the survey and suggested it include questions about social media usage.
"Social media turned out to be the most interesting part of our results," said Emily Barrett , the George G. Rhoads Endowed Legacy Professor and vice chair of the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the Rutgers School of Public Health and the lead author of the study.
"We often hear that social media may hurt kids' mental health and socioemotional development," she added. "This study suggests another cause for concern: social media's potential to increase the use of personal care products that often include hormone-disrupting and potentially carcinogenic chemicals."
