45D-26 |
Migration of nonylphenol, an endocrine disrupter, from plastic containers to drinking water |
J. E. LOYO-ROSALES, Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Univ. of Maryland, 1179 Engineering Classroom Bldg., College Park, MD 20742, A. M. Lynch, Northwest High School, 13501 Richter Farm Rd., Germantown, MD 20874-3410, C. P. Rice, Environmental Quality Lab., USDA-ARS-Animal & Natural Resources Institute, 10300 Baltimore Ave., Bldg. 007, Rm. 224, Beltsville, MD 20705-2350, and A. Torrents, Dept. of Environmental & Civil Engineering, Univ. of Maryland, 1179 Engineering Classroom Bldg., College Park, MD 20742. Recent interest in their impact on human health has prompted numerous studies on the presence of endocrine disrupters in the environment. Nonylphenol (NP) has been shown to elicit this type of effects. NP is ubiquitous in food products, introduced to food from different sources, one of them being plastic containers. Average daily intake of NP via food was estimated at 7.5 ug/day. This value does not include NP intake from drinking water, which is usually contained in plastic jugs. The objectives of this project were to quantify the amounts of NP in spring water bottled in different types of plastic containers (HDPE, PETE, and PVC), and to study the migration of NP from the plastic to the water. NP was extracted from spring water using solid-phase extraction, and analyzed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. NP migration from plastic containers was assessed by re-filling the jugs with carbon-free water, and analyzing the water at different intervals. Our first results showed that NP was present in the water samples. Water in HDPE containers had 180 ng/L of NP (SD=53 ng/L; n=6). NP was not detected in water contained in PETE jugs. Water in PVC had the highest amount of NP, 620 ng/L. Migration experiments showed that NP concentration in water from HDPE jugs increased from 16 to 280 ng/L after 10 days at 40C to simulate long-term storage. No NP was detected in water from PETE jugs. These results suggest that bottled water could be a significant source of NP to the diet (adding up to 16% of the average daily intake amount), and that the source of NP in bottled water is likely to be migration from the plastic containers.
Session 45D, Food Packaging: General
|