Medications as a potential source of exposure to phthalates among women of childbearing age

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the association between the use of medications potentially containing phthalates and urinary concentrations of specific phthalate metabolites around conception.

Methods: Women enrolled in the Environment and Reproductive Health project from 2006 to 2009 completed questionnaires about the use of medications and provided multiple urine samples before and after conception. We compared the mean urinary concentration of phthalate metabolites between users of phthalate containing medications and a matched unexposed control group.

Results: One woman used Asacol(®) (mesalamine), which utilizes dibutyl phthalate (DBP) as a delayed release coating material, and had a mean urinary concentration of the main DBP metabolite 200 times higher than the controls (8176μg/L vs. 37.5μg/L). The three users of stool softeners had a higher concentration of the main diethyl phthalate (DEP) metabolite (8636μg/L vs. 714.2μg/L). Neither the three additional Prilosec(®) (omeprazole) users nor one cyclobenzaprine user had higher urinary concentration than controls.

Conclusion: Selected medications may be important sources of DBP and DEP exposures around conception.

Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Figures

Fig. 1

Distribution of phthalate metabolites concentrations compared to NHANES, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for the years 1999–2004. X-axis: estimated day to pregnancy; Y-axis: SG-adjusted phthalate concentrations (ug/L in log10 scale). In the study subjects who became pregnant during the study period, day to pregnancy was the interval between the date of urine sample and the date of pregnancy onset. For subjects who had not conceived at the time of this report (N = 17), their days to pregnancy were estimated using the average interval between the last urine sample before pregnancy and date of pregnancy in the pregnant subjects.