Estimated daily intake and cumulative risk assessment of phthalates in Taiwan military personnel

Background: Phthalate esters (PAEs), which may have potential adverse health effects, are widely used in industrial and consumer products. The public raised concerns of exposure to PAEs after di-2-ethylhexyl PAE (DEHP) had been illegally used in food products in Taiwan in 2011. However, there is little information regarding the exposure levels of PAEs among Taiwanese military personnel. Objective: Health risk assessment indicators, including daily intake (DI), hazard quotient (HQ), and hazard index (HI), were used to assess the distribution and trends of PAEs and cumulative risk in Taiwanese military personnel. Materials and Methods: We recruited 503 participants who participated in northern voluntary military service from June to August 2017. We calculated the DI of five PAEs, namely dimethyl PAE, diethyl PAE, dibutyl PAE (DBP), benzyl butyl phthalate, and DEHP, and selected the reference dose (RfD) described by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as an acceptable exposure reference value to compute the HQ and HI. We used statistical analysis to examine the differences and trends of PAE metabolites in urine and investigated the possible primary sources of PAEs with principal component analysis. Results: The detection rates of 7 PAE metabolite concentrations were ≥72.2%. All DIs, HQRfDs, and HIRfDs were not over the standard EPA RfD. For all participants, two principal components (PC) were extracted. Three DEHP metabolites and MBP were correlated with PC1, and MiBP and MnBP were correlated with PC2. Conclusions: The main potential sources of PAE exposure for Taiwanese military personnel are DEHP and DBP. Efforts to reduce exposure to environmental PAEs are necessary to maintain health within the military