Phthalate esters in indoor dust from several regions, China and their implications for human exposure

Phthalate esters (PAEs) have been used in large quantities all over the world for decades, leading to ubiquitous occurrence in the indoor environment. Indoor dust samples were collected from six geographical regions in China (n = 120) and the concentrations, profiles and human exposure to nine prevalent PAEs from dust were investigated in this study. The total concentrations of nine PAEs (Σ₉PAEs) varied from 2.31 to 1590 μg/g (mean: 150 μg/g). The highest concentration of Σ₉PAEs was found for dusts from the geographical region of Northeast China (mean: 394 μg/g), which was nearly 8 times higher than that of the lowest value for dusts from the Southwest China (52.1 μg/g). The sum concentrations of six priority controlled PAEs, namely dimethyl phthalate (DMP), diethyl phthalate (DEP), di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP), benzyl butyl phthalate (BzBP), bis (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) and di-n-octyl phthalate (DNOP), in our study (mean: 133 μg/g) were lower than those found in other regions of the world (230-1280 μg/g) reported in earlier studies. DEHP, DBP and di-iso-butyl phthalate (DIBP) were the major congeners found in all dust samples, cumulatively accounting for 98.7% of Σ₉PAEs. The daily intake (DI) of PAEs via dust through the routes of ingestion, inhalation and dermal contact was estimated. Comparably, dust ingestion is the major pathway of human exposure to PAEs from dust and the DI values through dust ingestion were 985 ng/kg/day for children and 126 ng/kg/day for adults in China, respectively. The contribution of indoor dust to the total exposure of human to PAEs varied, depending on the type of PAE congeners. Among PAE congeners, DEHP was the predominant contributor, accounting for 3.45% and 2.39% of the estimated total DIs for Chinese children and adults, respectively. This indicates that indoor dust is an important source of human exposure to certain PAE congeners.