Toxicity and Estrogenic Endocrine Disrupting Activity of Phthalates and Their Mixtures

Abstract

Phthalates, widely used in flexible plastics and consumer products, have become ubiquitous contaminants worldwide. This study evaluated the acute toxicity and estrogenic endocrine disrupting activity of butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP), di(n-butyl) phthalate (DBP), bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), diisodecyl phthalate (DIDP), diisononyl phthalate (DINP), di-n-octyl phthalate (DNOP) and their mixtures. Using a 72 h zebrafish embryo toxicity test, the LC50 values of BBP, DBP and a mixture of the six phthalates were found to be 0.72, 0.63 and 0.50 ppm, respectively. The other four phthalates did not cause more than 50% exposed embryo mortality even at their highest soluble concentrations. The typical toxicity symptoms caused by phthalates were death, tail curvature, necrosis, cardio edema and no touch response. Using an estrogen-responsive ChgH-EGFP transgenic medaka (Oryzias melastigma) eleutheroembryos based 24 h test, BBP demonstrated estrogenic activity, DBP, DEHP, DINP and the mixture of the six phthalates exhibited enhanced-estrogenic activity and DIDP and DNOP showed no enhanced- or anti-estrogenic activity. These findings highlighted the developmental toxicity of BBP and DBP, and the estrogenic endocrine disrupting activity of BBP, DBP, DEHP and DINP on intact organisms, indicating that the widespread use of these phthalates may cause potential health risks to human beings.

Risk of Phthalate Exposure among Hospitalized Patient via Intravenous Fluids Receiving

“…Phthalates may be responsible for cancer in humans. Asthma and autism also were attributed to phthalate exposure [9,13].…”

“…Metabolic products of phthalates have developmental, and reproductive toxicity is affecting particularly male reproductive system [7,8]. Some of the phthalates are an endocrine disruptor and interfere with the function of the endocrine system, responsible for growth, sexual development, and many other essential physiological functions both in males and females [9,10]. Recently medical and pharmaceutical industries widely use phthalate esters for the production of various medical devices such as blood bags, intravenous fluid bags, infusion sets and pharmaceutical products containers.…”

Biodegradation of phthalic acid esters by a newly isolated Mycobacterium sp. YC-RL4 and the bioprocess with environmental samples

“…Aerobic degradation of PAEs seems to be more efficient than is anaerobic process (Jiao et al 2013;Chen et al 2014). Isolated PAEs degrading bacteria mainly belong to the Pseudomonas, Gordonia, Arthrobacter, and Rhodococcus genera (Zeng et al 2008;Wu et al 2010;Yang et al 2013;Karandikar et al 2015).…”

Occurrence, Fate, Behavior and Ecotoxicological State of Phthalates in Different Environmental Matrices

“…This work highlighted the developmental toxicity of BBzP and DnBP and the estrogenic endocrine disrupting activity of BBzP, DnBP, DEHP, and DiNP on intact organisms. 82,83 The effects of PAEs on wildlife are multiples. The estrogenic effect is one of the important biological impacts of PAEs on wildlife.…”