Phthalates in plastic bottled non-alcoholic beverages from China and estimated dietary exposure in adults

Concentrations of six phthalates were determined in 69 plastic bottled non-alcoholic beverages collected from marketplaces in China. Di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP) and di-(2-ethylhexyl)-phthalate (DEHP) were the most detected compounds with frequencies of 100%. Dimethyl phthalate was found less, with a mean frequency of almost 34%. The samples were divided into seven groups. The frequencies of phthalates in these groups ranged from 6.67% to 100%, which indicated that different types of beverages were differently contaminated by phthalates. DEHP contained the highest mean and median concentrations (1.60 ng g^-1 and 0.62 ng g^-1), followed by DBP (1.34 ng g^-1 and 0.27 ng g^-1). For DBP, the highest phthalate concentration of 14.3 ng g^-1 was measured. The results of estimated daily intake (EDI) showed that the risk of Chinese adults exposed to these 6 phthalates in beverages examined was lower than the reference doses as suggested by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The range of EDI values was between 1.77 × 10^-4 μg kg-bw^-1 day^-1 and 0.478 μg kg-bw^-1 day^-1.