Screening of phthalate and non-phthalate plasticizers and bisphenols in Sicilian women’s blood
Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology2023
30 citations
?
Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count.
Score: 60
?
0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.
Researchers screened blood samples from women in Sicily for plastic additives including phthalates, non-phthalate plasticizers, and bisphenols. Multiple compounds were detected in the blood of most participants, confirming widespread human internal exposure to chemicals that leach from plastics. Since many of these chemicals can act as hormone disruptors, the study underscores the importance of monitoring plastic-derived contaminants in people.
The plastic accumulation and its degradation into microplastics is an environmental issue not only for their ubiquity, but also for the release of intrinsic chemicals, such as phthalates (PAEs), non-phthalate plasticizers (NPPs), and bisphenols (BPs), which may reach body organs and tissues, and act as endocrine disruptors. Monitoring plastic additives in biological matrices, such as blood, may help in deriving relationships between human exposure and health outcomes. In this work, the profile of PAEs, NPPs and BPs was determined in Sicilian women's blood with different ages (20-60 years) and interpreted by chemometrics. PAEs (DiBP and DEPH), NPPs (DEHT and DEHA), BPA and BPS were at higher frequencies and greater levels in women's blood and varied in relation to age. According to statistical analysis, younger females' blood had higher contents of plasticizers than older women, probably due to a more frequent use of higher quantities of plastic products in daily life.