title: Phthalate exposure and risk assessment in California child care facilities.
abstract: Approximately 13 million U.S. children less than 6 years old spend some time in early childhood education (ECE) facilities where they may be exposed to potentially harmful chemicals during critical periods of development. We measured five phthalate esters in indoor dust (n = 39) and indoor and outdoor air (n = 40 and 14, respectively) at ECE facilities in Northern California. Dust and airborne concentrations were used to perform a probabilistic health risk assessment to compare estimated exposures with risk levels established for chemicals causing reproductive toxicity and cancer under California's Proposition 65. Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) and butyl benzyl phthalate (BBzP) were the dominant phthalates present in floor dust (medians = 172.2 and 46.8 μg/g, respectively), and dibutyl phthalate (DBP), diethyl phthalate (DEP), and diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP) were the dominant phthalates in indoor air (medians = 0.52, 0.21, and 0.10 μg/m(3), respectively). The risk assessment results indicate that 82-89% of children in California ECE had DBP exposure estimates exceeding reproductive health benchmarks. Further, 8-11% of children less than 2 years old had DEHP exposure estimates exceeding cancer benchmarks. This is the largest study to measure phthalate exposure in U.S. ECE facilities and findings indicate wide phthalate contamination and potential risk to developing children.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, University of California Berkeley , Berkeley, California 94720, United States.
authors.forename: Fraser W
authors.initials: FW
authors.lastname: Gaspar
authors.forename: Rosemary
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Castorina
authors.forename: Randy L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Maddalena
authors.forename: Marcia G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Nishioka
authors.forename: Thomas E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: McKone
authors.forename: Asa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bradman
mesh_terms: D000388:Air / Q000032:analysis; D016902:Air Pollution, Indoor / Q000032:analysis; D002140:California; D002648:Child; D002656:Child Day Care Centers; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004391:Dust / Q000032:analysis; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D006813:Humidity; D007223:Infant; D008452:Maximum Allowable Concentration; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology; D010795:Phthalic Acids / Q000032:analysis*; D060728:Reproductive Health; D018570:Risk Assessment; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D004391:Dust; D010795:Phthalic Acids; C032279:phthalic acid