Human urinary excretion of non-persistent environmental chemicals: an overview of Danish data collected 2006-2012

Several non-persistent industrial chemicals have shown endocrine disrupting effects in animal studies and are suspected to be involved in human reproductive disorders. Among the non-persistent chemicals which have been discussed intensively during the past years are phthalates, bisphenol A, triclosan and parabens because of their anti-androgenic and/or estrogenic effects.Phthalates are plastizers used in numerous of industrial products. Bisphenol-A is the main component of polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins. Parabens and triclosan are anti-microbial preservatives and other phenols such as benzophenone-3 act as UV-screener, while chloro-phenols and phenyl phenols are used as pesticides and fungicides in agriculture.In spite of the widespread use of industrial chemicals, knowledge about exposure sources and human biomonitoring studies among different segments of the population are very limited. In Denmark we have no survey programs for non-persistent environmental chemicals as it is known in some countries like USA (NHANES) and Germany (GerES). However, we have analyzed the excretion of seven parabens, nine phenols and metabolites of eight different phthalates in urine samples collected during the past 6 years from four Danish cohorts. Here we present biomonitoring data in more than 3600 Danish children, adolescents, young men and pregnant women from the general population. Our study shows that nearly all Danes were exposed to the six most common phthalates, to bisphenol A, triclosan and benzophenon-3 and to at least two of the parabens. The exposure to other non-persistent chemicals was also widespread. Our data indicates decreasing excretion of two common phthalates (DnBP and DEHP) over time.