Phthalates in pet bottles: Assessment of human exposure and load to landfills

Abstract

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles have become an integral part of the packaged water industry, but their release of phthalate acid esters (PAEs) is a threat to human health and to the environment. The omnipresence of phthalates in the environmental compartments results in human exposure via multiple pathways such as dermal, oral and inhalation for prolonged periods. This study aims to investigate the phthalate presence in PET bottles and to assess the health risk of people working in landfills/recycling facilities being exposed to these pollutants through dermal contact.MBP(1604 ng g(-1)) was the most abundant compound detected in PET bottle samples, followed by MEP (1056 ng g(-1)), DEP (413 ng g(-1)), MiPP (216 ng g(-1)), DnBP (189 ng g(-1)), BBP (23.2 ng g(-1)), MDHP (19.5 ng g(-1)), DMiP (16.8 ng g(-1)) and respectively. It is calculated that a total of 200.4, 131.96, 51.66, 23.66, 26.94, 2.443, 2.099 and 2.895 kg of MBP, MEP, DEP, DnBP, MiPP, MDHP, DMiP and BBP, respectively are disposed to the landfills/waste disposal sites through waste PET bottles. Mean concentration based dermal exposure estimated daily intake (EDI), target hazard quotient (THQ) and hazard index (HI) values were calculated. THQ values were determined as 0.007, 0.031, 0.113 for BBP, DEP and DnBP, respectively while HI (<1) indicated that the health risk was acceptable for all subjects. However, it is strongly recommended that regular monitoring of phthalates in PET on market shelves should be done to protect the health of consumers as well as to reduce pthalates loads to the environmental compartments.