REVIEW

Phthalate levels in Chinese residences: Seasonal and regional variations and the implication on human exposure

¹ Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
² College of Public Health, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China
³ Tianjin Key Lab of Indoor Air Environmental Quality Control, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
⁴ College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117566, Singapore
⁵ Center for Environment and Health, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China

^* Corresponding author (email: yingjun.liu@pku.edu.cn)

Received: 9 February 2023
Revised: 27 June 2023
Accepted: 27 June 2023

Abstract

Indoor pollution of manmade semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs) such as phthalates are a growing threat to human health. Herein we summarize the dust-phase phthalate concentrations in Chinese residences reported from 2011 to 2021 and simulate corresponding airborne concentrations based on equilibrium models. The simulation considers seasonal and regional variations in indoor temperature and PM_2.5 concentration, in contrast to the common practice of using constant values. Results show that variations in these two environmental factors lead to up to ten- and six-fold variations in the monthly median gas- and particle-phase concentrations of phthalates, respectively, in residences in individual climate zones. For higher-vapor-pressure species di-n-butyl phthalate and di-isobutyl phthalate, the resultant seasonal and regional variations in aggregate non-diet intake can reach six- and three-fold, respectively. These results have important implications on exposure assessment of SVOCs and epidemiological evaluation of their health effects.