Organophosphate ester flame retardant concentrations and distributions in serum from inhabitants of Shandong, China, and changes between 2011 and 2015

Abstract

The production and use of brominated flame retardants have been increasingly restricted. Organophosphate esters (OPEs) have been widely used as substitutes for brominated flame retardants. However, little is yet known about human exposure to OPEs. The potential health risks posed by OPEs were assessed by determining the concentrations of 6 OPEs in pooled serum samples from residents of Shandong, China. The mean ∑ OPE concentrations in 2011 and 2015 were 680 ng/g lipid and 709 ng/g lipid, respectively. The most abundant OPE was tri(2-chloroethyl) phosphate, contributing a mean of 82% of the ∑ OPE concentration. A significant correlation was found between the tri(2-chloroethyl) phosphate and tri-n-butylphosphate concentrations, possibly indicating that these OPEs are used in similar applications and have similar human exposure pathways in the study area. The mean tri(2-chloroethyl) phosphate concentration increased from 536 ng/g lipid in 2011 to 605 ng/g lipid in 2015, but the concentrations of tri-n-butylphosphate, triphenyl phosphate, and tris(methylphenyl) esters decreased between 2011 and 2015. This could indicate that chlorinated OPEs bioaccumulate in humans more strongly than nonchlorinated OPEs do. Environ Toxicol Chem 2017;36:414-421. © 2016 SETAC.

Temporal Trends in Exposure to Organophosphate Flame Retardants in the United States

“…9 Although long-term human exposure trends have not been assessed previously, to the best of our knowledge, short-term trends were recently evaluated in pooled samples from Chinese adults. 32 Ma et al reported no change in TPHP concentrations between samples collected in 2011 and 2015 in China, suggesting that exposure levels were relatively constant during this period. 32 Our results suggest that TPHP exposure may have started to decrease post-2011, suggesting that TPHP use as a flame retardant or in other applications could be decreasing.…”

Recent biomonitoring reports on phosphate ester flame retardants: a short review

“…The median concentration of total PEFRs was around 10-100 ng/g of lipids in breast milk from Sweden and several Asian countries, indicating that substantial exposure occurs at a young age via breastfeeding (Sunddkvist et al, 2010;Kim et al, 2014). The parent compounds (Liu et al, 2016;Zhao et al, 2016;Li et al, 2017;Ma et al, 2017;Qiao et al 2017) and their metabolites (Bui et al, 2017) were found in human serum and blood in a few studies. The metabolism of parent PEFRs tends to occur rapidly and the measurement of metabolites concentrations in urine is generally preferred to the invasive measurement of the nonmetabolized chemicals in serum for exposure assessment.…”

Different organophosphate flame retardant and metabolite concentrations in urine from male and female university students in Beijing and an assessment of exposure via indoor dust

“…The instrumental analysis procedure has been described previously (Schindler et al 2009a(Schindler et al , 2009bMa et al 2016). The gas chromatograph was fitted with a TG-5HT column (15-m length, 0.25-mm inner diameter, and 0.10-mm film thickness; Thermo Fisher Scientific).…”

“…All the DAP analytes eluted in < 19.5 min. The instrumental analysis procedure has been described previously (Schindler et al 2009a(Schindler et al , 2009bMa et al 2016). Van den Eede et al (2013b) has done the research to compare DAP analysis employed by liquid chromatographyÀelectrospray ionization(À) tandem mass spectrometry and gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.…”

“…Numerous studies of OPFRs in human samples such as serum and milk have been performed (Sundkvist et al 2010;Kim et al 2014;Ma et al 2016). Recently, quantified DAPs in urine have been identified as biomarkers to assess human exposure to OPFRs.…”