Dietary exposure of the Chinese population to phthalate esters by a Total Diet Study

Dietary exposure to phthalate esters (PAEs) was assessed for the general Chinese population in the 5th Chinese Total Diet Study (TDS). Concentrations of 16 PAEs, including bis (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP), butylbenzyl phthalate (BBP), diethyl phthalate (DEP), dimethyl phthalate (DMP), diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP), bis (2-n-butoxyethyl) phthalate (DBEP), bis (2-ethoxyethyl) phthalate (DEEP), bis (2-methoxyethyl) phthalate (DMEP), bis (4-methyl-2-pentyl) phthalate (BMPP), dicyclohexyl phthalate (DCHP), dipentyl phthalate (DPP), diphenyl phthalate (DPhP), di-n-hexyl phthalate (DHXP), dinonyl phthalate (DNP), di-n-octyl phthalate (DNOP) were determined in 192 composite food samples collected from the TDS. The results showed that 76.0% of the samples contained one or more PAEs with concentrations ranging from 0.017 to 7.19 mg/kg. The most frequently detected PAEs were DEHP (43.8%), DBP (35.9%), DMP (26.6%), DNP (25.5%), DIBP (24.5%), and DCHP (18.8%). The major dietary source of PAEs was vegetables, followed by cereals. A dietary exposure of the general population was assessed using lower bound (LB) and upper bound (UB) assumptions for left-censorship management. The average estimated daily intakes of PAEs in the general Chinese population ranged from 0.00 to 6.38 μg/kg bw per day, which were lower than the respective tolerable daily intakes (TDIs) of PAEs. The results suggested that dietary exposures to all of the PAEs analyzed in this study were unlikely to pose unacceptable health risks to the majority of the population in China.