Phthalate Esters in Tap Water, Southern Thailand: Daily Exposure and Cumulative Health Risk in Infants, Lactating Mothers, Pregnant and Nonpregnant Women

Kingsley Ezechukwu Okpara, Khamphe Phoungthong, Iwekumo Agbozu, Edeh Edwin-Isotu and Kuaanan Techato
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Kingsley Ezechukwu Okpara: Environmental Assessment and Technology for Hazardous Waste Management Research Center, Faculty of Environmental Management, Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla 90112, Thailand
Khamphe Phoungthong: Environmental Assessment and Technology for Hazardous Waste Management Research Center, Faculty of Environmental Management, Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla 90112, Thailand
Iwekumo Agbozu: Department of Chemistry, University of Africa, Toru-Orua 561101, Nigeria
Edeh Edwin-Isotu: Centre for Environmental Management and Control, University of Nigeria, Enugu 400001, Nigeria
Kuaanan Techato: Environmental Assessment and Technology for Hazardous Waste Management Research Center, Faculty of Environmental Management, Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla 90112, Thailand

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 4, 1-19

Abstract: Human exposure to phthalate esters (PAEs) via drinking water has generated public health concerns due to their endocrine disruptive abilities. This study reports on the occurrence and fate of six PAEs in raw and tap water samples collected from provincial waterworks located in Songkhla Province, Southern Thailand. In addition, the daily exposure and cumulative health risk of susceptible populations due to drinking tap water were evaluated by using four different reference dose (RfDs) sources. The maximum concentrations of PAEs in raw water were between 1.68 and 4.84 and 0.52 and 1.24 µg/L in tap water. Moreover, the levels of PAEs in the tap water samples indicated the poor PAEs removal efficiency of the conventional treatment process (59.9–69.1%). The contribution of water to the daily intake of PAEs did not exceed 0.37% in all the groups. Furthermore, both the individual and cumulative risk assessment showed negligible noncarcinogenic and antiandrogenic risk for all the groups. Nevertheless, the cumulative risk showed an increasing trend in the order of infants > lactating mothers > pregnant women > nonpregnant women, suggesting that infants are more vulnerable. In additional, the newly proposed RfDAA yielded higher hazard quotient and hazard index estimates, which indicates it is a more sensitive tool than other RfDs for the assessment of the individual and mixture risk of pollutants. The carcinogenic risk of DEHP was acceptable in every group. However, we recommend a future cumulative risk assessment of vulnerable groups considering their simultaneous exposure to all chemicals that have antiandrogenic effects via tap water.

Keywords: phthalate esters; raw and tap water; fate of PAEs; susceptible groups and cumulative risk assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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