Exposure assessment and the associated adverse health effects of possibly highly exposed Taiwanese children to phthalates through dietary intakes

摘要

Backgroun: Phthalates (DEHP), a chemical as plastic softener, was accidentally found to have been illegally used as clouding agent in numerous food products for more than a decade in 2011 in Taiwan. Aims: To assess the extent of exposure and the associated adverse health effects of the study children. Methods: A food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) was designed to assess the extent of exposure through dietary intakes of contaminated drinks, jams, nutritional supplements in the forms of tablets and capsules. Biomarkers of sexual hormone, thyroid, liver, kidney functioning, allergy, and insulin like growth hormone factors (IGF) were measured from blood samples collected during clinical visit. One hundred and ninety children ages under 12 who were potentially highly exposed to nutritional supplements contaminated with phthalates were assessed for their extent of exposures and the associated adverse health effects in this study. A lognormal distribution for variation of DEHP concentration in each supplement product item was fitted . This quantity was then multiplied with the intake frequency and period and summed up across different food categories for further uncertainties in exposure using a multi-level model to assess the daily intakes of DEHP for each individual based on their FFQ scores. A regression model to link the measured biomarkers with the assessed DEHP exposure was then applied with regression coefficients estimated using Markov chain Monte Carlo simulations to identify the associations between phthalates exposures and adverse health effects. Results: Among the markers, free-T4, IGF-1, and GOT were significantly associated with the assessed DEHP exposures of the studied children adjusting for age and gender.