Abstract
Parabens are widely used in different industries as preservatives and antimicrobial compounds. The evolution of analytical techniques allowed the detection of these compounds in different sources at µg/L and ng/L. Until today, parabens were already found in water sources, air, soil and even in human tissues. The impact of parabens in humans, animals and in ecosystems are a matter of discussion within the scientific community, but it is proven that parabens can act as endocrine disruptors, and some reports suggest that they are carcinogenic compounds. The presence of parabens in ecosystems is mainly related to wastewater discharges. This work gives an overview about the paraben problem, starting with their characteristics and applications. Moreover, the dangers related to their usage were addressed through the evaluation of toxicological studies over different species as well as of humans. Considering this, paraben detection in different water sources, wastewater treatment plants, humans and animals was analyzed based on literature results. A review of European legislation regarding parabens was also performed, presenting some considerations for the use of parabens.
Highlights
Parabens or p-Hydroxybenzoates are derivatives of p-hydroxybenzoic acid and are used in industry, in pharmaceutical, cosmetics and food, due to their appealing characteristic of acting as preservatives and antimicrobial compounds [1,2]The huge development of analytical techniques in recent years is leading to the possibility of detecting compounds at very low concentrations
It has been shown that parabens can act as endocrine disruptors [29,30] and that ED compounds can have negative impacts on animals’ reproductive systems due to their properties, causing animal feminization, abnormal formations and a decreased in the fecundity of species [75,76]
Kim et al [94] tested the effect of isopropylparaben and isobutylparaben for dermal toxicity in 28 days, for doses of 50, 100, 300 or 600 mg/kg body weight/day of rats, concluding that there were no significant changes in body or organs, but these parabens caused skin damage in female rats
Summary
Parabens or p-Hydroxybenzoates are derivatives of p-hydroxybenzoic acid and are used in industry, in pharmaceutical, cosmetics and food, due to their appealing characteristic of acting as preservatives and antimicrobial compounds [1,2]. Parabens can act as endocrine disruptors, which can promote adverse health risks in organisms and are related to a carcinogenic behavior [2,5,6] These detections can be explained by the increase in parabens in the composition of products [7] and/or due to a low performance of wastewater treatment plants using conventional technology [8]. This type of pollution can be eradicated, or at least decreased, with the use of more powerful wastewater treatments in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), such as advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), due to their good performance in pollutants abatement [5,9] Parabens, other contaminants such as endocrine disruptors [4], pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) [4], pesticides [10] and others are detected in the environment. The conventional wastewater treatments seem to be inefficient in their removal and the detection of parabens in wastewater treatment plants and water sources will be addressed
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