Prasad Bablu
Department of Environmental Studies, Faculty of Science, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara 390002, India.
Environ Sci Process Impacts. 2021 Mar 1;23(3):389-399. doi: 10.1039/d0em00396d. Epub 2021 Feb 10.
A comprehensive review was performed on the environmental fate, environmental occurrence, toxicity, physical-chemical properties, abiotic and biotic removal and degradation of phthalate esters (PAEs) to compute the overall phthalate exposure and their impact on human beings. The removal and degradation of these wide spread pollutants by abiotic processes such as hydrolysis and photodecomposition are very slow and insignificant. On the other hand, the breakdown of PAEs by microorganisms is considered to be one of the major routes of environmental degradation for these widespread pollutants. Numerous microbial strains have been reported to degrade these compounds under aerobic, anaerobic and facultative conditions. Concurrently, the environmental fate, transport and transformation/degradation of these compounds under natural conditions are highly dependent on their physical and chemical properties. In order to understand the relationship between the concentrations of PAEs of different environmental compartments and human exposure prospects, a novel average phthalate pollution index (PPI) and cumulative phthalate exposure index (PEI) were proposed using the multivariate analysis approach. These indices were computed on the basis of relative importance, environmental occurrence, toxicity, physical-chemical properties, abiotic and biotic removal and degradation of dimethyl phthalate (DMP), diethyl phthalate (DEP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP) and diethyl-hexyl phthalate (DEHP). At present, the average PPI and cumulative PEI of 29 countries were evaluated using the concentrations of PAEs reported in the literature. These indices signify the overall phthalate pollution, human exposure and their interrelation. According to the index, Slovakia, Canada, Taiwan, Sweden and South Africa are among the top five countries in terms of cumulative phthalate exposure as per the existing data. The exposure percentage of total PAEs significantly varies between 23 and 44% since many environmental compartments are not directly exposed to human beings and they are degraded under natural conditions.
对邻苯二甲酸酯（PAEs）的环境归宿、环境存在情况、毒性、物理化学性质、非生物和生物去除及降解进行了全面综述，以计算邻苯二甲酸酯的总体暴露情况及其对人类的影响。这些广泛存在的污染物通过水解和光分解等非生物过程的去除和降解非常缓慢且不显著。另一方面，微生物对PAEs的分解被认为是这些广泛存在的污染物在环境中降解的主要途径之一。据报道，许多微生物菌株在好氧、厌氧和兼性条件下都能降解这些化合物。同时，这些化合物在自然条件下的环境归宿、迁移和转化/降解高度依赖于它们的物理和化学性质。为了理解不同环境介质中PAEs浓度与人类暴露前景之间的关系，采用多变量分析方法提出了一种新的平均邻苯二甲酸酯污染指数（PPI）和累积邻苯二甲酸酯暴露指数（PEI）。这些指数是根据邻苯二甲酸二甲酯（DMP）、邻苯二甲酸二乙酯（DEP）、邻苯二甲酸二丁酯（DBP）、邻苯二甲酸丁苄酯（BBP）和邻苯二甲酸二（2-乙基己基）酯（DEHP）的相对重要性、环境存在情况、毒性、物理化学性质、非生物和生物去除及降解来计算的。目前，利用文献报道的PAEs浓度对29个国家的平均PPI和累积PEI进行了评估。这些指数表明了邻苯二甲酸酯的总体污染、人类暴露及其相互关系。根据该指数，就现有数据而言，斯洛伐克、加拿大、台湾地区、瑞典和南非是累积邻苯二甲酸酯暴露排名前五的国家/地区。由于许多环境介质并非直接暴露于人类且在自然条件下会降解，总PAEs的暴露百分比在23%至44%之间有显著差异。
