ESTIMATION OF PHTHALATES IN BOTTLED DRINKING WATER, MANUFACTURED IN INDIA, USING LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY MASS SPECTROMETRY (LC-MS/MS)

Abstract

Phthalate easters are known endocrine disrupter and possible carcinogen. Studies have carried out in different countries to investigate possible migration of phthalate easters into packaged drinking water and beverages and resultant toxic effect on human health. This study aimed to determine the level of phthalate migration into bottled drinking water, manufactured commercially in India and to identify a possible relationship between the amount and type of phthalate migration. Eight phthalate easters were investigated. The analysis included 375 samples (75 sets of 5 bottles each from 5 manufacturers, having same batch numbers and manufacturing dates) of drinking water packed in 1-Litre bottles made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET). The samples were incubated and analyzed at the Centre of Mass Spectrometry (Analytics Department) of the CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad on Agilent 6420 QQQ MS/MS system coupled to Agilent 1290 UPLC pump and 0 Thermo TSQ Altis coupled to Thermo RSLC 3000 system at room temperature (27 C) and two temperatures of extreme conditions representing 0 0 refrigeration temperature (4 C) and summer outdoor temperature (45 C) at the interval of 0, 30, 60, 120 and 180 days, 180 days (6 months) being the projected self-life for bottled drinking water in India. Of eight investigated phthalate esters, Di-butyl Phthalate (DBP) was detected in 94% and Di-isobutyl phthalate (DiBP) in 80% of samples analyzed. The highest migration of 0.0027 mg/l was recorded from PET bottles to drinking water for DBP, followed by 0.0024 mg/l for DiBP. DEHP (Bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate) was detected in 40% of sample sets with maximum concentration of 0.0006 mg/l. DPP (Di-pentyl phthalate) was detected in the least number of samples (21.3%) and its maximum concentration observed was 0.0004 mg/l. Migration of all eight investigated esters were detected in drinking water samples stored for 180 days at the three temperature conditions. In other temperature and storage conditions, frequency of detection varied between 0-66%. This study did not account for the factors like source of raw water, manufacturing process, PET types (virgin or recycled), and composition, etcetera. This is probably reected in widely varied standard deviation. The phthalate levels measured in these samples pose no risk for human health considering reference dose determined by USEPA, EU and FSSAI, for daily oral exposure to the human population. Nevertheless, the accumulation of small individual quantity taken with time may increase the lifelong phthalate exposure and eventually threaten the exposed person's life. Further studies with larger sample size and variants may be desirable. Also, drinking water quality standards needs to be revisited to include all signicant phthalate esters.