Currenta GmbH & Co. OHG, Institute of Biomonitoring, 51368 Leverkusen, Germany.
German Environment Agency (UBA), Corrensplatz 1, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
Int J Hyg Environ Health. 2019 Apr;222(3):419-424. doi: 10.1016/j.ijheh.2018.12.008. Epub 2019 Feb 14.
Di(2-propylheptyl) phthalate (DPHP) is used as a substitute for high molecular weight phthalates like di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) which were subjected to authorization under REACh in 2015. An earlier study on the time trend of exposure in human 24-h urine samples from the German Environmental Specimen Bank has revealed that metabolites of DPHP emerged in 2009 and 2012 (Schütze et al., 2015). In order to better assess a potential trend and the present state of exposure to DPHP, we now measured 180 urine samples from the German Environmental Specimen Bank, 60 per year, collected in 2011, 2014 and 2017, randomized and blinded before analysis. Together with the previously analyzed samples, data for a total of 480 samples covering 19 years from 1999 to 2017 was thus generated. We were able to show that DPHP exposure of the studied population, university students from Münster (Northwestern Germany), has remained essentially constant since 2011, after a rapid increase starting around 2009. Even so, urinary metabolite concentrations were always in the low ppb or sub-ppb range, indicating that DPHP exposure of the general population is substantially lower than for other modern plasticizers, and far below levels currently regarded as critical. DPHP is a plasticizer which is mostly used in non-sensitive applications with little probability of close contact to humans. Still, we observed how temporal trends of DPHP exposure largely follow trends of DPHP consumption in the Western European market. Our results hence demonstrate the potential of biomonitoring to sensitively detect the effects of industrial product strategy on the environment, even when biomarkers are present only at trace level.
邻苯二甲酸二（2-丙基庚基）酯（DPHP）被用作邻苯二甲酸二（2-乙基己基）酯（DEHP）的替代品，后者已于 2015 年根据 REACH 进行了授权。德国环境样本库的一项早期关于人类 24 小时尿液样本中暴露时间趋势的研究表明，DPHP 的代谢物于 2009 年和 2012 年出现（Schütze 等人，2015 年）。为了更好地评估 DPHP 的潜在趋势和当前暴露状况，我们现在测量了德国环境样本库的 180 个尿液样本，每年 60 个，于 2011 年、2014 年和 2017 年采集，在分析前进行随机和盲化。连同之前分析的样本，总共生成了 1999 年至 2017 年 19 年间的 480 个样本的数据。我们能够表明，自 2009 年左右迅速增加以来，研究人群（来自德国西北部明斯特的大学生）的 DPHP 暴露量自 2011 年以来基本保持不变。即便如此，尿代谢物浓度始终处于低 ppb 或亚 ppb 范围内，这表明普通人群的 DPHP 暴露量远低于其他现代增塑剂，远远低于目前被认为是临界水平的水平。DPHP 是一种增塑剂，主要用于与人类接触可能性较小的非敏感应用。尽管如此，我们观察到 DPHP 暴露的时间趋势在很大程度上遵循了西欧市场 DPHP 消费的趋势。因此，我们的研究结果表明，即使生物标志物仅以痕量存在，生物监测也具有检测工业产品策略对环境影响的潜力。
