Abstract
Concentrations of toxic chemicals in mothers highly correlate with those in their children; moreover, the levels are higher in children than in mothers. Non-persistent chemicals with a short half-life including phthalate metabolites, bisphenol A (BPA), triclosan (TCS), and parabens are metabolized and excreted through urine. Therefore, we assessed the urine concentrations of phthalate metabolites, BPA, TCS, and parabens; correlated the concentrations with exposure levels; and assessed the within-individual variability of these chemicals in mothers and their infants. We collected 225 and 71 samples from 45 mothers and 36 infants, respectively. For the variability analysis, 189 and 42 samples were collected from nine mothers and their infants, respectively. The median concentrations of phthalate metabolites in the mothers and infants were 0.53–26.2 and 0.81–61.8 μg/L, respectively, and those of BPA, TCS, and parabens were 0.24–76.3 and 2.06–12.5 μg/L, respectively. The concentrations of monoethyl phthalate (MEP), mono-N-butyl phthalate (MnBP), mono-isobutyl phthalate (MiBP), and BPA in the mothers were positively correlated with those in infants (0.45, 0.62, and 0.89, respectively; p < 0.05), whereas toxic chemical concentrations in infants were higher than those in the mothers. With respect to the within-individual intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), the first morning void (FMV) of the mothers had high ICCs for all chemicals (range: 0.72–0.99), except for BPA, monobenzyl phthalate (MBzP), and monocarboxyoctyl phthalate (MCOP). The ICC values of most chemicals were moderate to high (range: 0.34–0.99) in the first morning void. However, there were different patterns of ICCs in the infants. These findings indicate the importance of mother–infant pair studies and the necessity of research in infants, as they have different exposure sources and pathways from adults.
Highlights
Chemicals enter the human body via the ingestion of food, dermal absorption from the skin, and inhalation from air [1]
Urine samples were collected from nine mothers three times a day for 1 week: first morning void (FMV; 6–9 a.m.), lunch-time void (LV; 12–3 p.m.), and bed-time void (BV; 10 p.m.–12 a.m.)
We attempted to measure the concentrations of 15 toxic chemicals in urine samples and identify the variability in these chemicals in Korean mothers and infants by serial monitoring
Summary
Chemicals enter the human body via the ingestion of food, dermal absorption from the skin, and inhalation from air [1]. Fetuses and infants are considered environmentally vulnerable because their metabolism is incompletely developed compared that of adults, making it difficult to release toxic chemicals from the body effectively [5,6]. The findings of Tratnik et al and Bamai et al further support this view, based on the measurements of bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalate metabolites among family members [8,9]. They reported that the urine concentrations of BPA and phthalate metabolites were significantly correlated in mothers and children but not in fathers and children. Health information of infants must be collected in conjunction with that of their mothers
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