In an article published on August 2, 2023, in the journal Neurotoxicology, Liron Cohen-Eliraz from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, and co-authors investigated if exposure to phthalates during pregnancy affects the emotional and behavioral development of two-year-old children.
Between 2019 and 2021, the scientists collected a urine sample from 158 pregnant women living in or around Jerusalem sometime during the 11 to 18 weeks gestation period. To test the women’s phthalate exposure, they analyzed eleven primary and secondary phthalate metabolites and grouped them by source compound: di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP, CAS 117-81-7), di-iso-nonylphthalate (DiNP, CAS 28553-12-0), and monobenzyl phthalate (MBzP, CAS 2528-16-7). Mothers were interviewed about their child’s development soon after giving birth and when the child reached the age of two.
Cohen-Eliraz and co-authors detected DEHP and DiNP metabolites in more than 98%, and MBzP in 92%, of maternal samples. Using multivariate General Linear Models (GLM), they assessed potential links between maternal metabolite concentrations and toddler’s developmental outcomes, finding an association between DEHP and outcomes in boys. With higher maternal DEHP exposure the boys’ personal social abilities went down and “internalizing problems” (e.g., anxiety, emotional reactiveness) increased as did “externalizing problems” (e.g., attention problems, aggressive behavior). The researchers concluded that their findings support ”accumulating evidence of DEHP as a potentially harming chemical” requiring further attention.
Wania Sultan and co-authors from the University of Health Sciences, Karachi, Pakistan, reviewed the scientific evidence on the teratogenic effect of phthalates. In their two-page long correspondence article published on September 14, 2023, in the journal Toxicology in Vitro, they discussed that phthalates can affect human lives even before birth by causing abnormal fetal development and preterm birth which impact reproductive and neurological development. Besides providing recommendations for further research, the authors “call for action” and the adoption of “health policies to restrict exposure of phthalates to pregnant females, nursing mothers, and children and to educate them [expectant parents] about the potential sources of these chemicals.”
Phthalates have been associated with several more human health outcomes (FPF reported and here) and recently the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) classified the whole group as chemicals of concern (FPF reported). However, only a few have been addressed on a regulatory level and only in some parts of the world, e.g., four have been recognized in the EU as substances of very high concern (SVHCs) due to their endocrine disrupting properties for humans (FPF reported). Still, their presence in food contact materials continues as a recent study shows. Roopa Krithivasan from Defend Our Health, Portland, US, and co-authors analyzed 12 ortho-phthalates and nine further plasticizers in US food products including oil and milk. In their article published on September 20, 2023, in the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology, the authors reported that they detected eight ortho-phthalates in all 71 products, including organic and “healthier food options.” In addition, their findings indicate that phthalates can migrate into foodstuffs not only from packaging but also food processing equipment – an issue that needs to be monitored more closely.
In July 2023, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) denied a citizen petition asking to ban eight ortho-phthalates in food contact (FPF reported). A review published in 2021 concluded regulatory ‘safe’ limits for human exposure to phthalates may be set at levels not sufficiently protective of human health (FPF reported). Phthalates have been detected in a diverse array of foods (FPF reported) with food packaging as a source. They are used as plasticizers in plastics and since not covalently bound to the polymer they can migrate into foodstuff.
In an article published on August 30, 2023, in the journal Critical Reviews in Analytical Chemistry, Shikha Bhogala from Chandigarh University, Mohali, India, and co-authors reviewed human exposure routes to phthalates and concluded that food is an “important exposure route to many phthalates.” In their review, they mainly focused on the gas chromatography-based analytical techniques to investigate the presence and quantity of phthalates in aqueous matrices and food matrices as well as methods to prepare the food and beverage samples for the analysis. Bhogala and co-authors described that choosing the right sample preparation and preconcentration approach is the most difficult part of the analytical procedure. Accordingly, the future challenge would be to develop sorbents that allow detecting any type of phthalate in complex matrices. Concerning the GC-coupled analytical techniques they considered in their review, they find all “useful for determining phthalates in water and food matrices, both in terms of their reproducibility and accuracy.”
References
Bhogal, S. et al. (2023). “Prenatal exposure to phthalates and emotional/behavioral development in young children. ” Critical Reviews in Analytical Chemistry. DOI: 10.1080/10408347.2023.2250876
Cohen-Eliraz, L. et al. (2023). “Prenatal exposure to phthalates and emotional/behavioral development in young children. ” Neurotoxicology. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuro.2023.07.006
Krithivasan, L. et al. (2023). “Analysis of ortho-phthalates and other plasticizers in select organic and conventional foods in the United States.” Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology. DOI: 10.1038/s41370-023-00596-0
Sultan, W. et al. (2023). “The widely disregarded health risks posed by phthalates – A global call for action. ” Toxicology in Vitro. DOI: 10.1016/j.tiv.2023.105695
