Biomonitoring of human exposure to emerging environmental contaminants

Phthalate esters, parabens and bisphenol A (BPA) are used in a wide variety of consumer products. Phthalates, parabens and BPA are reproductive toxicants and endocrine disruptors. Although human exposure to these endocrine disrupting chemicals is inevitable, owing to their use in several consumer products, the daily exposure dose is still not well known. A biomonitoring approach, that involves measurement of concentrations of target chemicals in human urine and by use of a simple pharmacokinetic model, we estimated total daily exposure doses of these toxic chemicals. To complement biominotoring studies, we also measured contaminants in various exposure sources including dust and food samples for the calculation of daily exposure doses using the direct measurements. A comparison was made between exposure doses calculated using biomonitoring approach and direct measurement of contaminants in food and dust. (author)