Phthalate Concentrations In Foods And Personal Care Products And The Cumulative Exposure

Phthalate esters(PAEs) are synthetic chemicals widely used in industry. Phthalates are ubiquitous in the environment and the exposure sources of PAEs including food, personal care products(PCP), water, air and medical devices. Recent findings of human reports showed that long-time exposure to phthalates may affect human reproductive system and cause diabetes, male sterility and even cancer. Studies concerned human exposure to PAEs and the potential risk have been conducted in foreign countries. There are different ways to assess exposure level of PAEs and the risk assessment may be targeted to either one phthalate or several phthalates simultaneously. In general, Cumulative risk assessment based on bio-monitoring can completely reflect the cumulative adverse effect of several PAEs on human health, which will become a hot topic in the future. Foreign studies have showed that part of human population is exposed to phthalate level which has surpassed the guidance value and the cumulative exposure may cause health threat. In China, related studies have not been started and the exposure data for Chinese is lack. The aim of this research is to conduct studies related to the exposure levels of Chinest population and the cumulative risk, thus to support the risk controlling of PAEs in China.Concentration of dibutyl phthalate(DBP) and bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate(DEHP) in 181 food collected from retail markets in Shanghai were measured and the daily dermal exposure in Shanghainese was also assessed. The health risk of cumulative exposure to DBP and DEHP on reproductive system function derived from food consumption was further assessed by utilizing the hazard index(HI) approach.The detection frequency(Feq.) of DBP and DEHP were 91.4% and 82.3%, respectively. PAEs levels in meat products like poultry organs and fish were comparatively high. The geometric mean(GM) exposure level of DBP and DEHP to Shanghainese were 1.79 μg/(kg?d)and 9.68 μg/(kg?d)respectively. HIs of cumulative exposure of DBP and DEHP were respectively 0.38 and 0.98 under GM and maximal(Max) level. When considering other exposure sources, the cumulative exposure may probably cause health risk. The contributions to HI of different food were as follows: DBP in grains(15.5%), DEHP in vegetables(14.4%), DBP in vegetables(12.2%), DEHP in fish and shrimp(12.2%), DBP in fish and shrimp(8.1%), DEHP in edible oil in plastic bottle(6.6%) and DEHP in fruit(6.6%) under GM level.Concentrations of 11 PAEs in 198 PCP collected from retail markets in Shanghai were measured and the daily dermal exposure in adult females and infants were also assessed. The health risk of cumulative exposure to eight PAEs on reproductive system function derived from dermal PCP use was further assessed by utilizing the hazard index(HI) approach. Diethyl phthalate(DEP) was the most frequently detected compound(29.8%), followed by diisobutyl phthalate(DIBP)(6.6%). The GM concentrations of daily exposure to DEP, bis(2-methoxyethyl) phthalate(DMEP), DIBP, DBP, diphenyl phthalate(DPP), and DEHP in female adults were 0.018, 0.012, 0.002, 0.001, 0.003, and 0.002 μg/kg body weight(bw)/d, respectively. The GM daily exposure levels to PE in infants and adult females were similar except for DEHP, which was higher in infants. DEP exposure was highest in both subpopulations at either GM or maximal level. All HI of 8 PAEs were far less than 1, ranging from 0.0002 to 0.0050, indicating no cumulative reproductive risks to these populations. DBP, DMEP, and DEHP were three major contributors to the cumulative HI. In summary, the level of phthalate in PCP from Shanghai retail markets posed no apparent cumulative risk to adult females and infants in China.The total PAEs exposure of 60 volunteers was assessed through a biomonitoring method in this research in order to determine the total PAEs exposure level of target population in an all-round way.. A high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry(HPLC-MS/MS) method was established to measure 9 kinds of phthalates metabolites in human urines. Results showed that in the urine samples of 60 volunteers aged 20~30, concentrations of nine phthalate metabolites were between ND to 6230 μg/L. The average concentration of mono-n-butyl phthalate(MBP), which was the primary metabolite of DBP, was the highest among all the metabolites measured and the median concentration of MBP reached 98.0 μg/L. The level of MBP was higher than the results of other foreign researches, which may result from the larger usage dose of DBP in China.This research has assessed in the exposure levels of several kinds of PAEs by both external exposure approach and biomonitioring approach. Results showed that the main risk of PAEs arises from food intake, and the maximum HI value from food contact was nearly 1. Results of biomonitoring approach showed that MBP level was the highest in urine samples. Data obtained was comparatively representative and can provide guidance for standard establishment for food and cosmetics and future risk controlling of PAEs in China.