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Monitoring of urinary phthalate metabolites among pregnant women in Isfahan, Iran: the PERSIAN birth cohort

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Abstract

Recently, increasing evidences have shown that the exposure to phthalates can adversely affect health status of pregnant women and their newborns. However, only a limited number of studies have investigated the concentrations of these compounds in the body fluids of pregnant women. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the concentrations of phthalate metabolites in urinary samples of pregnant women in correlation with the population characteristics and different lifestyle factors. The study was conducted in 2018–2019 and urinary samples were taken from 121 pregnant women during their first pregnancy trimester who lived in Isfahan, Iran. The concentrations of monobutyl phthalate (MBP), mono-benzyl phthalate (MBzP), mono-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (MEHP), and mono (2-ethyl-5hydroxyhexyl) phthalate (MEHHP) metabolites in urinary samples were determined by gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The socio-demographic profile of the participants (maternal education, age, family income, pre-pregnancy BMI), their lifestyle information (smoking habit, food pattern, and physical activity), cleaning products use data (cosmetic and household cleaning products) were collected by the use of PERSIAN birth cohort questionnaire. MBzP, MBP, MEHP, and MEHHP were detected in 100% of participated pregnant women with the mean concentration of 342.5 ± 193.8, 308.5 ± 229.4, 126.5 ± 118.3, and 866.5 ± 307.6 μg/g creatinine, respectively. Significant correlations were observed between the mean concentration of urinary phthalate metabolites with the following variables: using plastic packaging (for bread, lemon juice, pickle, leftover, and water), lower physical activity, passive smoking exposure during pregnancy (p value<0.05). Furthermore, the pre-pregnancy BMI (r = 0.27, r = 0.3, r = 0.26, and r = 0.26), use of the household cleaning products (r = 0.2, r = 0.22, r = 0.3, and r = 0.26), utilize of the cosmetic products (r = 0.46, r = 0.48, r = 0.49, and r = 0.54), and passive smoking status (r = 0.5, r = 0.44, r = 0.44, and r = 0.26) directly correlated with the urinary concentrations of MBP, MBzP, MEHP, and MEHHP, respectively. No significant association was seen between the concentration of urinary phthalate metabolites with the maternal education level and family income. According to our findings, higher amounts of phthalate metabolites were detected in urinary samples of pregnant women who were passive smokers, or had higher pre-pregnancy BMI and lower physical activity, as well as those women who used higher amounts of cosmetic and household cleaning products, or used plastic packaging for food and non-food products.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the staff at the laboratory of the Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (IUMS).

Funding

This research was conducted as a part of the Ph.D. dissertation of the first author, supported by Isfahan University of Medical Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Health, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    Mohammad Darvishmotevalli, Bijan Bina, Karim Ebrahimpour & Hamidreza Pourzamani

  2. Environment Research Center, Research Institute for Primordial Prevention of Non- Communicable Disease, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    Mohammad Darvishmotevalli, Bijan Bina, Karim Ebrahimpour & Hamidreza Pourzamani

  3. Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Health, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    Awat Feizi

  4. Department of Pediatrics, Child Growth and Development Research Center, Research Institute for Primordial Prevention of Non-Communicable Disease, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    Roya Kelishadi

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  1. Mohammad Darvishmotevalli
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  2. Bijan Bina
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  3. Awat Feizi
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  4. Karim Ebrahimpour
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  5. Hamidreza Pourzamani
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  6. Roya Kelishadi
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Correspondence to Bijan Bina or Roya Kelishadi.

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This study was approved by the Ethics Committee, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (Code: IR.MUI.RESEARCH.REC.1397.441) and project number #397573.

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Darvishmotevalli, M., Bina, B., Feizi, A. et al. Monitoring of urinary phthalate metabolites among pregnant women in Isfahan, Iran: the PERSIAN birth cohort. J Environ Health Sci Engineer 17, 969–978 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40201-019-00412-8

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