Phthalates indoors

There are numerous reports on the occurrence of phthalates indoors. Results from different countries are compiled in Table 11.5 for house dust and in Table 11.6 for indoor air. Although the house dust samples were of different origin and... 

First, but very few, results on the occurrence of phthalates indoors were collected by Warns.The first report on the occurrence of a flame retardant plasticizer in house dust was on TDCPP. Sellstrom and Jansson mentioned it to be present in one out of two Swedish dust samples (from vacuum cleaner bags) but gave no concentration. In the last years however, quite a few results on phthalates and organophosphate plasticizers have been published. Some of them are compiled in Tables 17.5.5 and 17.5.6. 

The extensive use of phthalates as plasticizers in various materials (furniture, plastics, electronics equipment, textiles, etc.) has led to the widespread and substantial contamination of the indoor environment, e.g., air and dust [3, 96, 97]. Indoor environment and dietary intake are of special concern for the increasing... 

To evaluate human exposure to phthalates and their substitutes, the main approaches investigate either the levels of chemicals in matrices relevant for human exposure (indoor air, dust, food and packages, etc.) or the levels of parent and metabolite compounds in human samples (serum, urine, or breast milk). An overview of phthalate and nonphthalate plasticizers together with their metabolites commonly reported in literature is presented in Table 5. The half-lives for the most of these compounds are already established and therefore, by evaluating the levels of their metabolites in human urine, the levels of their parent compounds may be... 

Table 6 Literature survey on levels of most commonly used phthalates and their substitutes in house dust (median concentrations and in brackets P95 concentrations, results expressed in pg/g) and in indoor air samples (median concentrations, results expressed in ng/m )... 

Bergh C, Torgrip R, Emenius G, Ostman C (2011) Organophosphate and phthalate esters in air and settled dust - a multi-location indoor study. Indoor Air 21 67-76... 

Fromme H, Lahrz T, Ffiloty M, Gebhart H, Oddoy A, Ruden H (2004) Occurrence of phthalates and musk fragrances in indoor air and dust from apartments and kindergartens in Berlin (Germany). Indoor Air 14 188-195... 

Butte W, Hostrup O, Walker G (2008) Phthalates in house dust and air associations and potential sources indoors. Gefahrst Reinhalt L 68 79-81... 

Bergh C, Torgrip R, Ostman C (2010) Simultaneous selective detection of organophosphate and phthalate esters using gas chromatography with positive ion chemical ionization tandem mass spectrometry and its application to indoor air and dust. Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom... 

Various phthalate esters have been reported to be present in the enviromnent, including outdoor air, water, and soil [3-6], consumer products [7, 8], medical devices [9], marine ecosystems [10], and indoor air and dust [5, 11, 12]. They are also widely present in dairy products [13] and food in general [14]. 

For the general population, the oral route of exposure has been considered the major route, including inhalation of air (indoors and outdoors), ingestion of food, incidental ingestion of soil, and ingestion of dust (indoors), as well as direct contact with products that contain phthalates. Some studies suggested [17, 18] that food represents the most important source of exposure to DMP, DEP, DBP, butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP), and DEHP. A few studies showed that air inhalation could be also an important route of exposure [19-21], while others did not find any significant correlation between urinary levels in children and home dust measurements of phthalates [22]. 

Because of volatilization and leaching from their application in consumer and personal care products, phthalate esters are ubiquitous contaminants in indoor environment, and the levels found in dust from homes in different countries (Table 2), showed that the less volatile phthalates such as DEHP and BBP, are the predominant in dust samples [11,16, 74], and that the percentage of both carpet and plastic materials (furniture, decoration, and home electronics) could be associated with higher concentrations of BBP and DEHP in house dust [12, 74, 75]. The proportion of DiNP in house dust from Germany in 2009 [12], indicates that the... 

Table 2 Phthalate range (or median) concentrations in indoor and outdoor air (expressed in ng/m ) and home dust (expressed in pg/g dry weight) samples from different sites and countries... 

Rudel RA, Camann DE, Spengler JD, Korn LR, Brody JG (2003) Phthalates, alkylphenols, pesticides, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, and other endocrine-disrupting compounds in indoor air and dust. Environ Sci Technol 37 4543 553... 

Bomehag CG, Lundgren B, Weschler CJ, Sigsgaard T, Hagerhed-Engman L, Sundell J (2005) Phthalates in indoor dust and their associations with building characteristics. Environ Health Perspect 113 1399-1404... 

There is a paucity of data concerning concentrations of di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate concentrations in indoor air, although its volatilization from plastic products has been noted (Warns, 1987 Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, 1993). 

The most frequently used methods for sampling indoor surface dust for SVOC/ POM analysis is simply to use dust from a vacuum cleaner dust bag, see for example, Krause, Chutsch and Englert (1989), or a special vacuum cleaner mouthpiece containing a filter, see for example, 0ie, Hersoug and Madsen (1997). Both the mouth-piece and the filter should be cleaned prior to use. It must be assured that the SVOCs and POMs of interest are quantitatively captured by the filter (e.g., phthalates are quantitatively captured by quartz fiber filters (Clausen and Wolkoffi 1997b)) and that the vacuum cleaner exhaust does not contaminate the samples with for example, phthalates. However, the vacuum cleaner sampling method is probably very dependent on the sampling conditions (e.g., carpet or hard floor... 

All kinds of building materials, furniture, textiles, computers etc. are potential sources of SVOCs/POMs and estimation of the total content in the material may be required. One reason to estimate the total or initial content is that it is an important parameter in physical based emission models for example, for phthalate emission from vinyl flooring (Clausen et al, 2007). The materials can be purchased as new, or sampled from the indoor environment under investigation. The materials should be stored in a way that preserves their content of SVOCs/POMs and prevents contamination and degradation of the materials and their content of SVOCs/POMs. The content of SVOCs/POMs in the sampled materials can be estimated by extraction (see Section 2.5.1). 

Thermal desorption (TD) (see Section 2.6.1) compared with solvent desorption of adsorbent tubes requires less preparation since the samples are transferred on-line from the desorber to the GC. TD of indoor SVOC samples from Tenax TA tubes and quartz fiber filters is possible (Clausen and Wolkoff, 1997b) and air samples of phthalates from chamber studies are easily analyzed using TD (Clausen et al., 2004). TD recovery may be estimated by comparing spiked tubes with direct solvent injection using the same GC (Clausen and Wolkoff, 1997b). 

Phthalates and PAHs in indoor and outdoor air in a southern California community. Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Indoor Air Quality and Climate, Vol. 3, pp. 109-14. 

Weschler, C.J., Salthammer, T. and Fromme, H. (2008) Partitioning of phthalates among the gas phase, airborne particles and settled dust in indoor environments. Atmospheric Environment, 42,1449-60. 

For further information on plasticizers (organophosphates and phthalates) in the indoor environment see Butte (2004c) and Wensing, Uhde and Salthammer (2005). 

Bornehag, C.G., Lundgren, B., Weschler, C.)., Sigsgaard, T., Hagerhed-Engman, L. and Sundell, ). (2005) Phthalates in indoor dust and their association with building characteristics. Environmental Health Perspectives, 113,1399 104. 

It is desirable to collect as many different matrices from each study participant as is feasible and to process them with consideration of both immediately planned analyses of biomarkers and future uses. For example, several Children s Environmental Health Centers obtained urine, peripheral blood, cord blood, breast milk, meconium, saliva, hair, placental tissue, infant formula, indoor and outdoor air, and house dust from longitudinal birth cohort studies (Eskenazi et al. 2005). The centers have analyzed concentrations of numerous compounds in those biologic and environmental samples, such as pesticides, phthalates, mercury, lead, cotinine, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbone (PAHs), PAH-DNA adducts, allergens, endotoxin, antioxidant micronutrients, cholinesterase, and thyroid hormones. Most centers also banked samples for future analyses. 

DEHP levels in indoor air might be higher due to stow volatilization from plastic products (EPA 1981 Warns 1987). As noted in Section 6.2.1, Cadogan et al. (1994) reported that an indoor overall emission rate of 2.3x10 4 mg/second-m2 at 25 °C has been calculated for all phthalate plasticizers in products such as wall coverings, flooring, upholstery, and wire insulation. The air from rooms recently covered with polyvinyl chloride (PVC) tiles contained 0.15 0.26 mg/m3 (150,000 260,000 ng/m3) phthalate esters (EPA 1981). Indoor air levels in rooms with new flooring couldbe about 0.2 0.3 mg/m3 (Warns 1987). 

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