Study of the adverse effects of phthalates found in children's toys on Vibrio fischeri lethality

摘要

Phthalates has been widely used in children's toys as plastic plasticizers and softeners. The aim of this study was to extract chemically phthalates from 20 toy samples and determine toxicity using the Vibrio fischeri luminescent bacteria test. Subsequently the EC50 (the concentration producing 50% of maximal effect) was employed to characterize the toxicity of the sample and select the appropriate solvent from methanol, ethanol or glycerol in order to assess the adverse effects of di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP) or di-2-ethyl-hexyl phthalate (DEHP) and not solvent interference on Vibrio fischeri. Data showed that toxicity of glycerol was relatively low when the concentration was less than 0.44 mol/L. Therefore glycerol was selected as solvent. DBP and DEHP produced toxicity on Vibrio fischeri in the order of DEHP > DBP. The EC50 was 0.437 and 0.182 mol/L, respectively. This study provides the foundation for examination of combined toxic effects of the mixture of DBP and DEHP on Vibrio fischeri which is of significance for the safety of children's toys as both phthalates were found in these toys.