Occurrence of phthalate esters around the major plastic industrial area in southern Taiwan

Abstract

The increasing usage and disposal of plastic products could cause the wide distribution of phthalate esters (PAEs) in various environmental media. In this study, six PAE compounds, namely dimethyl phthalate, diethyl phthalate, di-n-butyl phthalate, benzyl butyl phthalate, di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), di-n-octyl phthalate, were analyzed in various samples collected from the major plastic industrial area of southern Taiwan, including soil, fertilizer and plastic products, for the purposes of identifying of the possible sources of PAEs and assessing the related health risk. The results show that PAEs in soil samples was dominated by DEHP, with the total concentrations in the range of 0.7 ± 0.5, 0.2 ± 0.1, and 0.3 ± 0.2 mg kg−1 for soil samples from farmland, household back gardens and the roadside, respectively. Contents of PAEs in chemical fertilizer (ND—0 0.87 mg kg−1) were higher than that in organic fertilizer (ND—0.08 mg kg−1), and PAEs concentrations (ND—316 mg kg−1) in plastic mulching films were much less than those in the other types of plastic products (ND—1719 mg kg−1), implying that major sources of PAEs in agricultural soil could be the use of chemical fertilizer and plastic products other than plastic mulching films. Health risk assessment suggested that, via the exposure to PAEs in soil, the potential non-cancer and carcinogenic risks for adults and children are minimal in most cases, except that a “moderate” carcinogenic risk for children exposure to DEHP. The results of this study can serve as a reference for further pollution prevention and environmental protection plans in relation to the industrial operation and discharge as well as the farming practices.