Measurement of 24 phthalate metabolites in 1st trimester urine samples: The MIREC Study.

Arbuckle TE, Gaudreau E, MacPherson SH, Kabasakal M, Borghese, MM, Fisher M, Bouchard MF, Foster WG, Ashley-Martin J, Provencher G. Chemosphere 2023 Jul 20:139603. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.139603 

Question: Can a better method be developed to measure exposure to phthalates in urine?

Phthalates are a large group of chemicals that can be used in plastics to soften and increase flexibility. They’re also used in many consumer products (e.g., hair spray, nail polish, shampoo). In a previous MIREC study, 11 phthalate metabolites were measured. Metabolites are breakdown products of a chemical. Each phthalate can have one or more metabolites when excreted in urine.

What did the researchers do:
The laboratory chemists developed a method to measure new phthalate metabolites and to increase their ability to measure some phthalate metabolites at lower levels. They then used this method to measure 24 metabolites from 10 different phthalates in biobanked urine samples from MIREC participants.

What did they find:
In about 1800 MIREC urine samples from the MIREC participants, 13 of the metabolites were detected in over 90% of the urine samples, while 4 of the metabolites were rarely detected (in less than 5% of the samples). Moreover, detection of one metabolite was improved. Levels of several of the metabolites were considerably lower than those measured in a German study of children and adolescents. Many of the new metabolites had not previously been measured in pregnancy.

What does this mean:
This study produced biomonitoring data for a large population of pregnant Canadians that can be used in the government’s risk assessment of phthalates. Future work will examine whether higher levels of phthalates are associated with adverse pregnancy and child outcomes.

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