Phthalates are a group of chemicals used to make plastics more flexible and harder to break. Over the last several years, Phthalate has created a big change in the world of plasticized plastics. The term “phthalate” is used in the context of plasticizers, referring to any one of a family compounds called “ortho-phthalates”. Plasticizers are a component of many flexible plastic products, especially flexible PVC.