Liu Shaojie, Fan Jing, Wang Yifei, Liu Zhanren, Yang Zhiping, Chen Bo
Department of Clinical Nutrition, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University, School of Medicine, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361003, China.
Key Laboratory of Public Health Safety of Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jul 2;15(1):22855. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-05451-w.
Due to the special characteristics of low octanol-water partition coefficient and high-water solubility, melamine (MEL) and its derivatives released from daily products will be preferentially allocated to aquatic environments. However, no study has reported the occurrence and distribution of MEL and its derivatives in the diverse aquatic environments in China. This study collected 8 categories of 121 water samples in different regions of China, including bottled water, tap water, swimming pool water, river and lake water, precipitation, well water, filtered water, and network pipe water. The ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry was used to measure the concentrations of MEL and its three derivatives, ammeline, ammelide, and cyanuric acid (CYA). The hazard quotient (HQ) and hazard index (HI) were utilized to evaluate the health risks posed by MEL and CYA in water samples for the general population or aquatic organisms. In addition to bottled water, the detectable rates of MEL and its derivatives in other water samples exceeded 94.87%. The highest average concentration of MEL was observed in well water (181.371 ng/mL), and the highest levels of CYA was observed in swimming pool water (14,477.650 ng/mL). In composition of water samples, the primary chemical constituent in well water and precipitation was MEL, whereas CYA emerged as the predominant chemical constituent in other types of water samples. The external exposure assessment indicated that except for well water and swimming pool water, the calculated HQ and HI values based on the concentrations of MEL and CYA in other water samples were significantly below 1. This study demonstrated the widespread presence of MEL and its derivatives in various aquatic environments in China. The general population may elevate their exposure risk of MEL and CYA through the daily consumption of well water or unintentional swallow of pool water during swimming.
由于三聚氰胺（MEL）及其衍生物具有低辛醇-水分配系数和高水溶性的特殊性质，日常用品中释放的它们将优先分配到水生环境中。然而，尚无研究报道MEL及其衍生物在中国不同水生环境中的存在情况和分布。本研究在中国不同地区采集了8类121个水样，包括瓶装水、自来水、游泳池水、河流和湖水、降水、井水、过滤水和管网水。采用超高效液相色谱-串联质谱法测定MEL及其三种衍生物氨腈、蜜白胺和氰尿酸（CYA）的浓度。利用危害商数（HQ）和危害指数（HI）评估水样中MEL和CYA对普通人群或水生生物造成的健康风险。除瓶装水外，其他水样中MEL及其衍生物的检出率均超过94.87%。井水（181.371 ng/mL）中MEL的平均浓度最高，游泳池水（14477.650 ng/mL）中CYA的含量最高。在水样组成方面，井水和降水中的主要化学成分是MEL，而CYA则是其他类型水样中的主要化学成分。外部暴露评估表明，除井水和游泳池水外，根据其他水样中MEL和CYA浓度计算出的HQ和HI值均显著低于1。本研究表明MEL及其衍生物在中国各种水生环境中广泛存在。普通人群可能会因日常饮用井水或游泳时无意中吞咽泳池水而增加接触MEL和CYA的风险。
