Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health, and Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, State University of New York at Albany , Empire State Plaza, P.O. Box 509, Albany, New York 12201-0509, United States.
Environ Sci Technol. 2013 Oct 1;47(19):10895-902. doi: 10.1021/es402574k. Epub 2013 Sep 17.
Parabens (alkyl esters of p-hydroxybenzoic acid) are widely used in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and foodstuffs as broad-spectrum antimicrobial preservatives. Laboratory animal studies have shown that parabens possess weak estrogenic activity. Widespread exposure of humans to parabens has raised significant public health concerns. Despite such concern, little is known about the occurrence of parabens in the environment. In this study, six paraben analogues, methyl- (MeP), ethyl- (EtP), propyl- (PrP), butyl- (BuP), benzyl-(BzP), and heptyl parabens (HepP), were determined in surface sediment and sediment core samples collected from several locations in the United States (U.S.), Japan, and Korea by high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). Concentrations of parabens also were determined in sewage sludge collected from several wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in Korea. MeP was found in all samples, including surface sediment, sediment core, and sludge samples, at concentrations ranging from 0.312 to 540 ng/g dry weight (dw). PrP was detected in the majority of samples (79%), and the concentrations were, in general, 1-2 orders of magnitude lower than MeP concentrations. Significant positive correlations were found among the concentrations of paraben analogues in sediment and sludge, which suggested the existence of similar sources of origin for these compounds. The sum concentrations of six parabens (∑PBs) in sludge (geometric mean: 66.3, median: 89.5 ng/g dw) were remarkably higher than those in sediment (5.48, 5.24 ng/g dw). Vertical profiles of parabens in sediment cores from the U.S. showed a gradual increase in concentrations in the past decade, although such a trend was not clear in sediment core from Tokyo Bay, Japan.
对羟基苯甲酸酯（对羟基苯甲酸的烷基酯）被广泛用作广谱抗菌防腐剂，用于化妆品、药品和食品。实验室动物研究表明，对羟基苯甲酸酯具有较弱的雌激素活性。由于人类广泛接触对羟基苯甲酸酯，引起了重大的公共卫生关注。尽管存在这种担忧，但人们对环境中对羟基苯甲酸酯的存在知之甚少。在这项研究中，采用高效液相色谱-串联质谱法（HPLC-MS/MS），测定了来自美国、日本和韩国几个地点的表层沉积物和沉积物芯样本中 6 种对羟基苯甲酸酯类似物（甲基-（MeP）、乙基-（EtP）、丙基-（PrP）、丁基-（BuP）、苄基-（BzP）和庚基对羟基苯甲酸酯（HepP））。还测定了从韩国几家废水处理厂（WWTP）采集的污水污泥中的对羟基苯甲酸酯浓度。在所有样品（包括表层沉积物、沉积物芯和污泥样品）中均发现 MeP，浓度范围为 0.312 至 540 ng/g 干重（dw）。PrP 存在于大多数样品（79%）中，其浓度通常比 MeP 浓度低 1-2 个数量级。在沉积物和污泥中，对羟基苯甲酸酯类似物的浓度之间存在显著的正相关关系，这表明这些化合物存在相似的来源。污泥中 6 种对羟基苯甲酸酯的总和浓度（∑PBs）（几何平均值：66.3，中位数：89.5 ng/g dw）明显高于沉积物中的浓度（5.48，5.24 ng/g dw）。来自美国的沉积物芯的对羟基苯甲酸酯垂直分布显示，过去十年浓度逐渐增加，而日本东京湾的沉积物芯则没有明显的趋势。
