Pollution characteristics and health risk assessment of phthalate esters in household dust in Chengdu, China

Abstract

The characteristics and health risks of 15 phthalate esters in household dust and the association with household attributes were investigated in Chengdu, China. The concentrations of total phthalate esters ranged from 87.9 to 3623 μg/g. Di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) was the dominant compound of phthalate esters with a median of 151 μg/g. The statistical analysis result showed that household products and synthetic polymer emission were the main sources of phthalate esters. Smoking, cooking, keeping pets and the use of wooden floor and plastic wallpaper might increase the concentrations of phthalate esters in household dust, but opening windows frequently, and increasing the sweeping frequency might cause the decrease of phthalate esters in the indoor environment. The hazard indexes (HI) values of phthalate esters were all below 1, indicated that there are not non-carcinogenic of phthalate esters in household dust for the residents in Chengdu. However, the carcinogenic risk of DEHP was 2.54 × 10−6, implying that the carcinogenic risks via exposure to DEHP from Chengdu household dust were noticeable.