title: Lactational exposure to phthalates in Southern Italy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Phthalates, reproductive toxicants in animals, are synthetic chemicals with ubiquitous human exposures because of their extensive use, with potential detrimental health effects. Infants are considered to represent a population at increased risk, as they are exposed early in life to several different sources of exposure to phthalates.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Little information exists on phthalate exposure through breast milk from different geographic areas. By means of a LC/LC-MS/MS method we tested the presence of several different phthalate metabolites in breast milk from 62 healthy mothers living in Southern Italy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The simple monoesters mono-isobutyl phthalate (MiBP) (median 18.8 microg/l) and mono(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (MEHP) (median 8.4 microg/l) were present in all milk samples, whereas mono-n-butyl phthalate (MnBP) (median 1.5 microg/l) and mono-benzyl phthalate (MBzP) (median <0.3 microg/l) were found in 64.5% and 43.5% of the samples, respectively. Among the oxidative metabolites of DEHP and DiNP only mono(2-ethyl-5-carboxypentyl) phthalate (5cx-MEPP) and monoisononyl phthalate with one hydroxyl group (OH-MiNP) were detectable in one and 13 samples (21%), respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings indicate that exposure to phthalates through breast milk in Southern Italian infants is comparable to that of other countries, thus confirming that human milk may represent an additional potential source of phthalate exposure in a population at increased risk. However, different milk concentrations of MiBP may suggest a different pattern of usage of di-iso-butyl phthalate in Europe, as compared to USA, whereas for the first time, we detected an oxidative DiNP metabolite, whose significance remains unclear.
authors.affiliation: Division of Neonatology, Perrino Hospital, Brindisi, Italy. gilatini@tin.it
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Latini
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wittassek
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Del Vecchio
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Presta
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: De Felice
authors.forename: Jurgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Angerer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D002853:Chromatography, Liquid; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007558:Italy; D008895:Milk, Human / Q000737:chemistry*; D009035:Mothers; D010795:Phthalic Acids / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry
chemical_list: D010795:Phthalic Acids; C032279:phthalic acid