Phthalate Ester Contamination in Intensively Managed Greenhouse Facilities and the Assessment of Carcinogenic and Non-Carcinogenic Risk: A Regional Study

Abstract

The contamination status and the potential carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic health risks from six phthalate esters (PAEs), nominated as priority pollutants by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), were investigated in 40 typical greenhouses in three large-scale intensive greenhouse production areas in Jingmen city, Hubei province, central China. The total concentrations of PAEs in 40 soil samples and 80 vegetable samples ranged from 919 ± 134 to 7015 ± 475 µg kg−1 (dry weight, DW), and from 387 ± 63, to 11,683 ± 1313 µg kg−1 (DW), respectively. No carcinogenic risk was detected. The heat-map of the hazard quotient (HQ) values indicates the non-carcinogenic risks to children from di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP), at two sampling sites out of the 40, and from diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) (20 to young children and three to older children and adults) at 23 of the sites. The contamination risk from PAEs at Pengdun is of concern because only two of the 14 sampling sites selected there showed the non-carcinogenic risk to humans was unclear. The results of this study help to close a long-term knowledge gap resulting from a shortage of experimental data on PAE contamination in intensive greenhouse vegetable production in central China. The inclusion of DEHP in the Chinese list of priority pollutants is recommended, due to its increasing contamination and risk. This study provides valuable information for protected agricultural soil management and risk avoidance. It is a timely reminder to take PAE contamination and associated health risks into consideration, during the planning and introduction of intensively-managed greenhouse production systems.

Pet cats, the better sentinels for indoor organic pollutants

“…PAEs are a major public health concern because they are endocrine disrupters, carcinogens, teratogens, and mutagens. Exposure to PAEs increase the risk of fertility damage, cancer, and long-term diseases such as heart disease and diabetes (Ma et al, 2019). In the serum of cats living in Paris, France, PAEs had the highest level of organic pollutants compared with PCBs and PBDEs, at 107 ± 98 μg/L for 9PAEs, which was higher than that in human serum (11,600-18500 ng/L) (Inoue et al, 2005;Braouezec et al, 2016).…”

Plasticisers in the terrestrial environment: sources, occurrence and fate

“…DEHP and DnBP accumulated in worm tissues, although DMP, DEP and DnOP were not detected. At environmentally relevant concentrations of 5 mg kg À1 dw in soil (Hongjun et al 2013;Chai et al 2014;Ma et al 2019), DnBP and DEHP in worm tissue reached a steady-state after approximately 10 days to ,1-1.5 mg kg À1 ww and ,0.4-1.2 mg kg À1 ww respectively ('ww' refers to wet weight value). Bioconcentration factors (BCFs) after 15 days of exposure to DnBP were in the range of 0.23-0.30 for an agricultural soil (pH 8.3, SOM 1.35 %) and 0.18-0.23 for a forest soil (pH 7.6, SOM 4.53 %), whereas BCFs for DEHP were in the range of 0.13-0.20 for the agricultural soil and 0.06-0.08 for the forest soil.…”