Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, China.
J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol. 2012 Nov;22(6):625-31. doi: 10.1038/jes.2012.51. Epub 2012 May 30.
The urinary metabolites of phthalates are well-accepted exposure biomarkers for adults and children older than 6 years but are not commonly used for infants owing to non-convenient sampling. In the light of this situation, a novel sampling method based on monitoring the urine expressed from the gel diaper was developed. The urine was expressed from the gel absorbent after mixing the absorbent with CaCl(2) and then collected by a laboratory-made device; the urinary phthalate metabolites were extracted and cleaned using a solid-phase extraction (SPE) column and analyzed with high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry / mass spectrometry. To evaluate the method's feasibility, the following factors were investigated: the proportion of CaCl(2) to gel absorbent, the urination volume variation and the target compounds' deposition bias in the diaper, the matrix blank of the different diaper brands, the storage stabilities and the recoveries of creatinine and phthalate metabolites in the expressed urine. Mono-methyl phthalate, mono-ethyl phthalate, mono-butyl phthalate, mono-benzyl phthalate, mono-2-ethylhexyl phthalate and mono-2-ethyl-5-oxohexyl phthalate were involved. 70-80% of the urine can be expressed from the diaper, and the expressed spiking recoveries and the limit of detection of mono-phthalates ranged from 88.5-115% and 0.21-0.50 ng/ml. The method was applied to measure phthalate metabolites in 65 gel diaper samples from 15 infants, and the pilot data suggests the infants are commonly exposed to phthalates. In summary, the method for monitoring of infant exposure to phthalates is sound and validated, and the potential health effects from the vulnerable infants' exposure to phthalates should be concerned.
邻苯二甲酸酯的尿液代谢产物是成人和 6 岁以上儿童的可接受暴露生物标志物，但由于采样不方便，通常不用于婴儿。鉴于这种情况，开发了一种基于监测凝胶尿布中尿液的新型采样方法。将吸收剂与 CaCl2混合后，从凝胶吸收剂中挤出尿液，然后用实验室自制装置收集；使用固相萃取（SPE）柱提取和净化尿液中的邻苯二甲酸酯代谢物，并用高效液相色谱-电喷雾串联质谱/质谱法进行分析。为了评估该方法的可行性，研究了以下因素：CaCl2与凝胶吸收剂的比例、尿量变化以及尿布中目标化合物的沉积偏差、不同尿布品牌的基质空白、储存稳定性以及表达尿液中肌酐和邻苯二甲酸酯代谢物的回收率。涉及单甲基邻苯二甲酸酯、单乙基邻苯二甲酸酯、单丁基邻苯二甲酸酯、单苄基邻苯二甲酸酯、单-2-乙基己基邻苯二甲酸酯和单-2-乙基-5-氧代己基邻苯二甲酸酯。约 70-80%的尿液可从尿布中挤出，单邻苯二甲酸酯的表达回收率和检测限范围为 88.5-115%和 0.21-0.50ng/ml。该方法应用于 15 名婴儿的 65 个凝胶尿布样本中测量邻苯二甲酸酯代谢物，初步数据表明婴儿普遍接触邻苯二甲酸酯。总之，监测婴儿接触邻苯二甲酸酯的方法是可靠的，并已得到验证，应关注易受伤害的婴儿接触邻苯二甲酸酯所带来的潜在健康影响。
