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Prenatal phthalate exposure reduction through an integrated intervention strategy

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Abstract

Pregnancy represents a sensitive susceptibility window to phthalate esters (PAEs). In this study, we develop an intervention strategy for reducing the exposure of pregnant women to phthalates. Thirty-five pregnant women, who initially underwent maternity examination, were recruited from an ongoing longitudinal prospective prenatal cohort study. The intervention strategy integrates diet, lifestyle, and environmental factors. Participants were encouraged to modify their behaviors and habits according to the intervention strategy at three different periods. Urine samples were collected from the participants after antenatal examination every month, for 8 months, to measure ten PAE metabolites. Mono-(2-ethyl-5-hydroxyhexyl) phthalate (MEHHP), mono-n-butyl phthalate (MnBP), and mono-(2-ethyl-5-oxohexyl) phthalate (MEOHP) declined significantly after the 1st intervention, while mono-isobutyl phthalate (MiBP) and mono-methyl phthalate (MMP) noticeably decreased after the 2nd intervention. The sum of the molar concentrations of MEHP, MEHHP, MEOHP, and MECPP reduced by 20 to 40% during subsequent intervention. In addition, the sum of the molar concentrations of MEP, MnBP, MMP, and MiBP as well as the sum of the molar concentrations of the ten metabolites also reduced. Our findings suggest that intervention through written recommendations can effectively reduce the burden of phthalates during pregnancy.

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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to all participants and collaborators for their contribution to the cohort study.

Funding

This work was supported by the Youth Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21806032).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Laboratory Medicine, Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, 16 Huangjia Lake West Road, Wuhan, 430065, China

    Wei Wu, Ting-Ting Zheng, Shu-Yu Feng, Guan-Wei Ma, Ying-Ying He & Ping Wu

  2. Ezhou Maternal And Child Health Hospital, Ezhou, 436000, China

    Liu Cao

Authors
  1. Wei Wu
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  2. Liu Cao
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  3. Ting-Ting Zheng
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  4. Shu-Yu Feng
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  7. Ping Wu
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Contributions

Wei Wu: editing and supervision. Liu Cao: original draft preparation. Ting-Ting Zheng: investigation. Shu-Yu Feng: software and methodology. Guan-Wei Ma: visualization. Ying-Ying He: provision of study materials. Ping Wu: reviewing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Wei Wu or Ping Wu.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval

This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Ethics Committee of Hubei University of Chinese Medicine (No. 2018-IEC-010). Written informed consent was obtained from individual or guardian participants.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Responsible Editor: Lotfi Aleya

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Wu, W., Cao, L., Zheng, TT. et al. Prenatal phthalate exposure reduction through an integrated intervention strategy. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 57183–57191 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14613-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14613-y

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