Migration Of Phthalates From Food Plastic Bags To High-temperature Soup Food And Their Population Health Risks

OBJECTIVES This study was conducted to evaluate the migration of phthalate esters(PAEs)and their health risks caused by packing high-temperature soup food in food plastic bags in different time;To investigate the changes of PAEs metabolites caused by packing food in food plastic bags.Internal exposure was used to assess the health risks of exposure to PAEs.METHODS(1)Web based survey was conducted to investigate the habits of packing food with plastic bags in South Central China residents,and the informations about packing high-temperature soup food in food plastic bags were collected.A total of 18 food bags were collected from 6 administrative districts of Nanning(Qingxiu District,Xingning District,Jiangnan District,Liangqing District,Yongning District,Xixiangtang District)and the contents of PAEs in plastic bags were determined.The rice noodles were put in a food plastc bag immediately after cooked thoroughly,after storing at room temperature for 15 min,30 min,60 min,120 min,the migration of PAEs from plastic bags to food were detected by GC-MS.Based on the migration of PAEs,the health risk model recommended by USEPA was used to assess the human health risk caused by PAEs migration.(2)In this study,5 college students were recruited to intervene in dietary behavior.The intervention process was divided into the pre-intervention stage(forbidding the consumption of high-temperature soup foods packed in plastic bags for a total of 4 days)and the intervention stage(eating the high-temperature rice noodles packed in plastic bags for dinner every day for a total of 4 days)and the post-intervention stage(prohibit the use of high-temperature soup foods packaged in plastic bags for 5 days),morning and evening urine samples were collected during the study.Ultraviolet liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry(UPLC-MS)was used to detect the 10 PAEs metabolites in urine.The changes of PAEs metabolites before,during and after intervention were compared,and the health risks of exposure to PAEs before,during and after intervention were evaluated based on the concentrations of urinary PAEs metabolites.RESULTS Part I:(1)91.8% of the 61 residents surveyed said they used to packed high-temperature soup food in the plastic bags and the years and frequency of using food plastic bags to package high-temperature soup foods were 10 years and 200 d/year,respectively.(2)DBP,DIBP,DEHP,DPP,DEP were detected in food plastic bags and their detection rates were 100%,the median were 115.97,58.41,254.77,3.63,1.27?g/kg.(3)DBP,DIBP and DEHP can migrate from food plastic bags to food.when the packing time was 60 min,the migration contents of DBP,DIBP and DEHP were 0.18,0.41,and 0.18?g/kg,respectively,which were higher than that of the 15 min and the 30 min group.p<0.05;When the packing time was 120min,the migrations of DBP,DIBP,and DEHP were 0.63,0.97,and 0.91 ?g/kg,respectively,higher than that of the 15 min,30 min,and 60 min group,p<0.05.Based on the migration of PAEs,the health risks caused by PAEs migration were assessed.The total non-carcinogenic risk resulting from the migration of PAEs after food packaging in food plastic bags for 15min,30 min,60 min,and 120 min were 9.60×10-6,1.28×10-5,1.55×10-5, 5.68×10-5,respectively,and the carcinogenic risk caused by DEHP were 0.00,0.00,5.00×10-9 and 2.70×10-8,respectively.Both non-carcinogenic risks and carcinogenic risks are lower than acceptable level recommended by USEPA,indicating that negligible risk of adverse health effects.Part II:(1)The detection rates of MECPP,MEHP,MIBP,MBP,MCMHP,MEHHP,and MEOHP in urine of volunteers were higher than 95% and the median of the 10 metabolites of PAEs(including MCMHP,MECPP,MEHHP,MEOHP, MEHP,MBZP,MIBP,MBP,MEP and MMP)before creatinine correction were 38.76,18.90,15.03,16.64,23.34,0.00,127.27,118.06,0.84 and 0.00ng/m L,respectively.(2)Dietary behavioral intervention: the concentration of MEHP in intervention increased by 60%(0.32?g/g Cr vs.0.20?g/g Cr,p<0.0)compared with pre-intervention;Post-intervention,compared with the intervention,the metabolite contents of MEEPP,MEHHP,MEOHP,MEHP,MIBP,and MBP were reduced by 37.5%(0.10?g/g Cr vs.0.16?g/g Cr),53.3%(0.07?g/g Cr vs.0.15?g/g Cr),40.0%(0.09?g/g Cr vs.0.15?g/g Cr),40.6%(0.19?g/g Cr vs.0.32?g/g Cr),27.0%(0.84?g/g Cr vs.1.15?g/g Cr)and 27.8%(0.83?g/g Cr vs.1.15?g/g Cr,p<0.05),respectively.Risk assessment indicated that,compared to intervention,the non-carcinogenic health risks of DEHP and total PAEs in post-intervention were reduced by 41.9%(2.72×10-3 vs.4.69×10-3,p<0.01)and 21.6%(6.78×10-3 vs.8.64×10-3,p<0.05),respectively.The non-carcinogenic health risks(HQ)caused by DEHP,DBP,DIBP and DEP in before,during,and after intervention were all less than 1,and the total non-carcinogenic health risk(HI)of the above 4 PAEs(before,during,and after intervention)also less than 1.CONCLUSIONS 1.DBP,DIBP,and DEHP can migrate from food plastic bags to high-temperature soup foods.The migration increases with the extension of packing time in 120 min.2.The consumption of high-temperature soup food packed in food plastic ags can increase the level of PAEs metabolites(MEHP),and the ban on his dietary action can reduce the content of urinary PAEs metabolites(such as MECPP,MEHHP,MEOHP,MEHP,MIBP,MBP),the orresponding health risk also showed a downward trend.3.The risk of exposure to PAEs in this study was lower than the acceptable level for humans when it is only through the single route of having high-temperature soup food packed in food plastic bags.However,the combination of PAEs exposed by other routes may cause health hazards to the human.