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Kim, Hong, Lee, Chung, Yang, Kim, Kho, and Kim: An estimate of phthalate exposure among term pregnant women living in Bucheon: The pilot study
Original Article
Korean Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology

Korean Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology 2011; 54(3): 140-146.

Published online: 16 March 2011

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5468/KJOG.2011.54.3.140

An estimate of phthalate exposure among term pregnant women living in Bucheon: The pilot study

Tae-Hee Kim, MD1, Yeon-pyo Hong, MD, PhD2, Hae-Hyeog Lee, MD, PhD1, Soo-Ho Chung, MD1, Yun-jung Yang, PhD2, Sang-yon Kim2, Young Lim Kho, PhD3, Jun-Mo Kim, MD, PhD4

1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Soonchunhyang University College of Medicine, Bucheon, Korea.

2Department of Preventive Medicine, Chung-Ang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

3School of Human & Environment, Eulji University, Seongnam, Korea.

4Department of Urology, Soonchunhyang University College of Medicine, Bucheon, Korea.

Corresponding author: Yeon-pyo Hong, MD, PhD. Department of Preventive Medicine, Chung-Ang University College of Medicine, 221 Heukseok-dong, Dongjak-gu, Seoul 156-756, Korea. Tel: +82-2-820-5665, Fax: +82-2-820-5665, hyp026@cau.ac.kr

Received 20 September 2010       Revised 26 January 2011       Accepted 10 February 2011

Copyright © 2011. Korean Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology

(open-access):

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Objective

Phthalates are a group of phthalic acid esters and these are used as plasticizers. Several studies have described phthalate exposure in other countries, but there are no such reports from Korea. We assessed exposure to phthalic acid in the urine of full term pregnant women.

Methods

There were 32 full term deliveries in our hospital from August, 2009 to April, 2010. We received approval from the Institutional Review Board at our hospital and written informed concept from all the patients. We review the obstetrics history, the history of medical illness and other problems. To assess exposure to different phthalates, we measured the concentrations of nine phthalate metabolites in the spot urine samples collected 24 hours before delivery. The urinary concentrations of 10 phthalate ester metabolites (mono-methyl phthalate [MMP], mono-ethyl phthalate [MEP], mono-n-butyl phthalate [MnBP], mono benzyl phthalate [MBzP], mono-[2-ethylhexyl] phthalate [MEHP], mono-[2-ethyl-5-hydroxyhexyl] phthalate [MEHHP], mono-[2-ethyl-5-oxohexyl] phthalate [MEOHP], mono-isobutyl phthalate [MiBP], mono-[2-ethyl-5-carboxypentyl] phthalate [5cx-MEPP], and mono-[2-carboxymethylhexyl] phthalate [2cx-MMHP]) were analyzed in the spot urine samples collected from the pregnant women. The data is being used as a pilot study for a large multicenter study.

Results

The mean age was 31.1±3.2 years. The mean gestational age was 38.4±1.3 weeks. The creatinine-corrected concentration (geometric mean: µg/g Cr) was 1.754 (MMP), 3.443 (MEP), 3.839 (MnBP), 2.721 (MBzP), 2.437 (MEHP), 4.042 (MEHHP), 3.504 (MEOHP), 2.805 (MiBP), 3.765 (5cx-MEPP), and 3.775 (2cx-MMHP).

Conclusion

Our data reflects a preliminary description of pregnant women's exposure, before delivery, to phthalates. So, a prospective multicenter study is needed to evaluate phthalate exposure based on our data.

Keywords: Phthalate, Phthalic acid, Term pregnancy

Figures and Tables

Table 1
Clinical characteristics of term pregnancy in study
kjog-54-140-i001

Values are presented as mean±standard deviation or number (%).

BMI, body mass index.

Table 2
Distribution of urinary phthalate metabolites (µg/L) concentration without creatinine-adjusted in 32 women who had term births
kjog-54-140-i002

GM, geometric mean; GSD, geometric standard deviation; Min, minumum; Max, maximum; MMP, mono-methyl phthalate; MEP, monoethyl phthalate; MiBP, mono-isobutyl phthalate; MnBP, mono-n-butyl phthalate; MEHP, mono-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate; MEOHP, mono-(2-ethyl-5-oxohexyl) phthalate; MEHHP, mono-(2-ethyl-5-hydroxyhexyl) phthalate; 5cx-MEPP, mono-(2-ethyl-5-carboxypentyl) phthalate; 2cx-MMHP, mono-(2-carboxymethylhexyl) phthalate; MBzP, mono-benzyl phthalate.

Table 3
Distribution of urinary concentration of phthalate metabolites (creatinine-adjusted, µg/g Cr) among 32 women who had term births
kjog-54-140-i003

GM, geometric mean; GSD, geometric standard deviation; Min, minumum; Max, maximum; MMP, mono-methyl phthalate; MEP, monoethyl phthalate; MiBP, mono-isobutyl phthalate; MnBP, mono-n-butyl phthalate; MEHP, mono-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate; MEOHP, mono-(2-ethyl-5-oxohexyl) phthalate; MEHHP, mono-(2-ethyl-5-hydroxyhexyl) phthalate; 5cx-MEPP, mono-(2-ethyl-5-carboxypentyl) phthalate; 2cx-MMHP, mono-(2-carboxymethylhexyl) phthalate; MBzP, mono-benzyl phthalate.

Table 4
Pearson's correlation coefficients with log-transformed urinary creatinine-adjusted phthalate's metabolite concentrations among 32 women who had term births
kjog-54-140-i004

( ), P-value.

MMP, mono-methyl phthalate; MEP, mono-ethyl phthalate; MiBP, mono-isobutyl phthalate; MnBP, mono-n-butyl phthalate; MEHP, mono-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate; MEOHP, mono-(2-ethyl-5-oxohexyl) phthalate; MEHHP, mono-(2-ethyl-5-hydroxyhexyl) phthalate; 5cx-MEPP, mono-(2-ethyl-5-carboxypentyl) phthalate; 2cx-MMHP, mono-(2-carboxymethylhexyl) phthalate; MBzP, mono-benzyl phthalate.

*P<0.05.

Table 5
Comparison of geometric mono-(2-ethyl-5-carboxypentyl) phthalate (5cx-MEPP, creatinine-adjusted, µg/g Cr) according to exposure history (food and environmental) in 31 women who had term births by Student' t-test (one no-respondent is not included)
kjog-54-140-i005

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