Open AccessTemporal Trends in Exposures to Six Phthalates from Biomonitoring Data: Implications for Cumulative Risk
Author(s) -
Jeanette Reyes,
Paul S. Price
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
environmental science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.851
H-Index - 397
eISSN - 1520-5851
pISSN - 0013-936X
DOI - 10.1021/acs.est.8b03338
Subject(s) - biomonitoring , phthalate , hazard quotient , national health and nutrition examination survey , risk assessment , toxicology , hazard ratio , reference dose , cumulative risk , environmental health , medicine , environmental science , confidence interval , environmental chemistry , health risk , chemistry , biology , population , computer security , organic chemistry , computer science
Phthalates are used in a wide range of consumer goods, resulting in exposures to specific phthalates that vary over time in accordance with changes in product use and how phthalates are utilized. We investigated trends in estimates of daily intake dose and several cumulative risk metrics, including the Hazard Quotient (HQ), Hazard Index (HI), and Maximum Cumulative Ratio (MCR) for six phthalates from 2005 to 2014 using metabolite biomonitoring data collected from spot urine samples under the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Over this period, there was a 2.2-fold decrease in the mean HI (0.34 to 0.15) and a 7.2-fold decrease in the percentage of participants with an HI > 1 (5.7% to 0.8%), indicating an overall decrease in combined exposure to these phthalates. Children (aged 6-11 years) had higher mean HI values than either adolescents (aged 12-19 years) or adults (aged 20+ years) during this period. MCR values were generally low and inversely correlated with HI. This indicated that a single phthalate usually drove the hazards for highly exposed individuals. However, the average value of MCR increased 1.2-fold (1.7-2.1) over this period indicating an increasing need to consider exposures to multiple phthalates in this group.