Phthalate and di-(2-ethylhexyl) adipate (DEHA) intake by German infants based on the results of a duplicate diet study and biomonitoring data (INES 2)

Phthalates as well as di-(2-ethylhexyl) adipate (DEHA) are used as plasticizers in diverse applications and are of toxicological concern.The study was conducted with a study population of 25 German subjects aged between 15 and 21 months. Overall, 16 phthalates and DEHA were measured by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry in a total of 171 duplicate diet samples collected over 7 consecutive days, and 20 phthalate metabolites were analyzed in the urine samples collected over 7 consecutive days using a liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry method.The median “high” daily dietary intake based on 95th percentiles was 4.66 μg/kg b.w. for di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), 1.03 μg/kg b.w. for di-isobutyl phthalate (DiBP), and 0.70 μg/kg b.w. for di-n-butyl phthalate (DnBP), and 1.0 μg/kg b.w. for DEHA. The “high” daily total intake from biomonitoring data was 4.9 μg/kg b.w. for DEHP, 2.2 μg/kg b.w. for DnBP, 3.9 μg/kg b.w. for DiBP, and 2.6 μg/kg b.w. for di-isononyl phthalate.The comparison of the two intake estimates indicates that the dominant intake source of DEHP was food ingestion, whereas other sources considerably contributed to the total intake of other phthalates. Using our “high” intake scenario, none of the analyzed phthalates reached the recommended tolerable daily intake levels.