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Wastewater-Based Epidemiology as a New Tool for Estimating Population Exposure to Phthalate Plasticizers

Authors :
Rafael Cela
José Benito Quintana
Iria González-Mariño
Rosario Rodil
Iván Barrio
Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. Departamento de Química Analítica, Nutrición e Bromatoloxía
Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. Instituto de Investigación e Análises Alimentarias
Source :
Minerva. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, instname
Publication Year :
2017
Publisher :
American Chemical Society, 2017.

Abstract

This study proposes the monitoring of phthalate metabolites in wastewater as a nonintrusive and economic alternative to urine analysis for estimating human exposure to phthalates. To this end, a solid-phase extraction–liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry method was developed, allowing for the determination of eight phthalate metabolites in wastewater (limits of quantification between 0.5 and 32 ng L–1). The analysis of samples from the NW region of Spain showed that these substances occur in raw wastewater up to ca. 1.6 μg L–1 and in treated wastewater up to ca. 1 μg L–1. Concentrations in raw wastewater were converted into levels of exposure to six phthalate diesters. For two of them, these levels were always below the daily exposure thresholds recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the European Food Safety Authority. For the other four, however, estimates of exposure surpassed such a threshold (especially the toddler threshold) in some cases, highlighting the significance of the exposure to phthalates in children. Finally, concentrations in wastewater were also used to estimate metabolite concentrations in urine, providing a reasonable concordance between our results and the data obtained in two previous biomonitoring studies This work was financed by Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO; project no. CTM2014-56628-C3-2-R), Xunta de Galicia (GRC2013-020 and IGM postdoctoral contract “Plan Galego de Investigación, Innovación e Crecemento 2011–2015”) and FEDER/ERDF SI

Details

Language :
English
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Minerva. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, instname
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....76c80caba5b0ee42e00968f27e1c3b76