PreservativeReef research: Limited data

Methylparaben

A common preservative named in Palau's reef-toxic chemical list.

Banned in

Palau

Is Methylparaben safe for your skin?

The EU's scientific committee (SCCS, 2023, corrigendum 2024) judged methylparaben safe as a cosmetic preservative at up to 0.4% on its own, or 0.4% within a 0.8% ester mixture, after weighing endocrine concerns. The FDA has no paraben-specific preservative rule and says it has no information showing that parabens as used in cosmetics affect human health.

EU limit: the SCCS found methylparaben safe up to 0.4% (as acid) alone, and up to 0.4% in a mixture of esters totalling no more than 0.8% (Annex V, entry 12 of the Cosmetics Regulation).
Margin of safety: for a worst-case aggregate exposure of 0.671 mg/kg bw/day across all cosmetic categories, the SCCS calculated a margin of safety of 557. Values above 100 were treated as safe.
Hormone effects: the SCCS saw weak estrogenic activity in some lab assays, only at high concentrations, and signs of anti-androgenic activity in rat studies at high oral doses (reduced anogenital distance in male pups at the top dose). It said human data do not show adverse effects.
Data gap: no valid human skin-absorption study exists, so the SCCS assumed 50% absorption and said a well-performed absorption study could further support its conclusion.
Skin: the SCCS considers methylparaben not irritating to skin or eyes and not a skin sensitiser.
FDA: it has no special rules for cosmetic preservatives and says it has no information that parabens as used in cosmetics affect human health, while it keeps reviewing studies. It will advise the public if it finds a hazard.
Scope: the SCCS assessment covers human safety only; it did not assess environmental safety.

Last reviewed October 14, 2026. This summarises what regulators and published studies found. It isn't medical advice.

Where it’s restricted

Named in the law or guidance

Location	Status	Since
Palau law text ↗	In force	January 1, 2020

What the reef research says

No study that tested methylparaben on corals turned up in this research. The nearest coral result, Danovaro et al. 2008, found complete bleaching of Acropora corals with butylparaben, a different paraben; methylparaben is not among the compounds they list as causing bleaching. In a marine copepod (Tigriopus japonicus), the acute LC50 of methylparaben was 29,754 µg/L for males and 38,183 µg/L for females (Kang et al. 2019), lower toxicity than ethylparaben or propylparaben. In the freshwater water flea Daphnia magna (Lee et al. 2017), the 21-day reproduction no-effect concentration was 1 mg/L, and UV light made methylparaben more harmful.

Sources (5)