Impact of European chemicals regulation on the industrial use of plasticizers and patterns of substitution in Scandinavia

Sackmann, Kathrin; Reemtsma, Thorsten; Rahmberg, Magnus; Bunke, Dirk

doi:10.1016/j.envint.2018.06.037

Cited by 32 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…The availability of data from the participants' work environment, together with information about working hours, would have improved the estimates of total indoor phthalate intakes. Finally, it should be noted that exposure to some of the investigated phthalates has been on the decline in Europe and the United States over the past decade since our data were collected, due to increased regulation and substitution 49,81 . However, phthalates and alternative plasticizers remain to be ubiquitous.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Indoor phthalate exposure and contributions to total intake among pregnant women in the SELMA study

et al. 2021

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Phthalates are widely used in consumer products. Exposure to phthalates can lead to adverse health effects in humans, with early‐life exposure being of particular concern. Phthalate exposure occurs mainly through ingestion, inhalation, and dermal absorption. However, our understanding of the relative importance of different exposure routes is incomplete. This study estimated the intake of five phthalates from the residential indoor environment for 455 Swedish pregnant women in the SELMA study using phthalate mass fraction in indoor dust and compares these to total daily phthalate intakes back‐calculated from phthalate metabolite concentrations in the women's urine. Steady‐state models were used to estimate indoor air phthalate concentrations from dust measurements. Intakes from residential dust and air made meaningful contributions to total daily intakes of more volatile di‐ethyl phthalate (DEP), di‐n‐butyl phthalate (DnBP), and di‐iso‐butyl phthalate (DiBP) (11% of total DEP intake and 28% of total DnBP and DiBP intake combined). Dermal absorption from air was the dominant pathway contributing to the indoor environmental exposure. Residential exposure to less volatile phthalates made minor contributions to total intake. These results suggest that reducing the presence of low molecular weight phthalates in the residential indoor environment can meaningfully reduce phthalate intake among pregnant women.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Indoor phthalate exposure and contributions to total intake among pregnant women in the SELMA study

et al. 2021

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, largely untested replacements will likely be used in their place. As plastics production continues to rise globally, new mixtures are constantly emerging (Ryan 2015;Sackmann et al 2018). It is therefore critical that these knowledge gaps are filled with high-quality human-relevant data so that the Basel Convention secretariat and other policy entities have the information needed to both promote a circular economy and protect public health.…”

Section: Global Context Policy and Health Inequalitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Children’s Health Perspective on Nano- and Microplastics

Sripada

Wierzbicka

Abass

et al. 2022

Environ Health Perspect

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Background: Pregnancy, infancy, and childhood are sensitive windows for environmental exposures. Yet the health effects of exposure to nano- and microplastics (NMPs) remain largely uninvestigated or unknown. Although plastic chemicals are a well-established research topic, the impacts of plastic particles are unexplored, especially with regard to early life exposures. Objectives: This commentary aims to summarize the knowns and unknowns around child- and pregnancy-relevant exposures to NMPs via inhalation, placental transfer, ingestion and breastmilk, and dermal absorption. Methods: A comprehensive literature search to map the state of the science on NMPs found 37 primary research articles on the health relevance of NMPs during early life and revealed major knowledge gaps in the field. We discuss opportunities and challenges for quantifying child-specific exposures (e.g., NMPs in breastmilk or infant formula) and health effects, in light of global inequalities in baby bottle use, consumption of packaged foods, air pollution, hazardous plastic disposal, and regulatory safeguards. We also summarize research needs for linking child health and NMP exposures and address the unknowns in the context of public health action. Discussion: Few studies have addressed child-specific sources of exposure, and exposure estimates currently rely on generic assumptions rather than empirical measurements. Furthermore, toxicological research on NMPs has not specifically focused on child health, yet children’s immature defense mechanisms make them particularly vulnerable. Apart from few studies investigating the placental transfer of NMPs, the physicochemical properties (e.g., polymer, size, shape, charge) driving the absorption, biodistribution, and elimination in early life have yet to be benchmarked. Accordingly, the evidence base regarding the potential health impacts of NMPs in early life remains sparse. Based on the evidence to date, we provide recommendations to fill research gaps, stimulate policymakers and industry to address the safety of NMPs, and point to opportunities for families to reduce early life exposures to plastic. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP9086

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“…plasticisers). The results show that regulation can have a high impact on the reduction of emissions of problematic chemicals [17] and is an important element for the transition to a more sustainable chemistry [18].…”

Section: Future Scenariosmentioning

confidence: 99%

The European Collaborative Project SOLUTIONS developed models to provide diagnostic and prognostic capacity and fill data gaps for chemicals of emerging concern

et al. 2019

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The European Union Water Framework Directives aims at achieving good ecological status in member states' water bodies. Insufficient ecological status could be the result of different interacting stressors, among them the presence of many thousands of chemicals. The diagnosis of the likelihood that these chemicals negatively affect the ecological status of surface waters or human health, and the subsequent development of abatement measures usually relies on water quality monitoring. This gives an incomplete picture of chemicals' contamination, due to the limited number of monitoring stations, samples and substances. Information gaps thus limit the possibilities to protect against and effectively manage chemicals in aquatic ecosystems. The EU FP7 SOLUTIONS project has developed and validated a collection of integrated models ("Model Train") to increase our understanding of issues related to emerging chemicals in Europe's river basins and to complement information and knowledge derived from field data. Unlike pre-existing models, the Model Train is suitable to model mixtures of thousands of chemicals, to better approach a "real-life" mixture exposure situation. It can also be used to model new chemicals at a stage where not much is known about them. The application of these models on a European scale provides temporally and spatially variable concentration data to fill gaps in the space, time and substance domains left open by water quality monitoring, and it provides homogeneous data across Europe where water quality data from monitoring are missing. Thus, it helps to avoid overlooking candidate chemicals and possible hot spots for management intervention. The application of the SOLUTIONS Model Train on a European scale presents a relevant line of evidence for water system level prognostic and diagnostic impact assessment related to chemical pollution. The application supports the design of cost-effective programmes of measures by helping to identify the most affected sites and the responsible substances, by evaluating alternative abatement options and by exploring the consequences of future trends. which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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Impact of European chemicals regulation on the industrial use of plasticizers and patterns of substitution in Scandinavia

Cited by 32 publications

References 21 publications

Indoor phthalate exposure and contributions to total intake among pregnant women in the SELMA study

Indoor phthalate exposure and contributions to total intake among pregnant women in the SELMA study

A Children’s Health Perspective on Nano- and Microplastics

The European Collaborative Project SOLUTIONS developed models to provide diagnostic and prognostic capacity and fill data gaps for chemicals of emerging concern

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