Exposure Marker Discovery of Phthalates Using Mass Spectrometry

Phthalates are chemicals widely used in industry and the consequences on human health caused by exposure to these agents are of significant interest currently. The urinary metabolites of phthalates can be measured and used as exposure markers for the assessment of the actual internal contamination of phthalates coming from different sources and absorbed by various ways. The purpose of this paper is to review the markers for exposure and risk assessment of phthalates such as di-methyl phthalate (DMP), di-ethyl phthalate (DEP), di-butyl phthalate (DBP), benzylbutyl phthalate (BBP), di-(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP), di-(2-propylheptyl)phthalate (DPHP), di-iso-nonyl phthalate (DINP), di-n-octyl phthalate (DnOP) and di-iso-decyl phthalate (DIDP), and introduction of the analytical approach of three metabolomics data processing approaches that can be used for chemical exposure marker discovery in urine with high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) data.