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Expressing urine from a gel disposable diaper for biomonitoring using phthalates as an example

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 22, pages 625–631 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

The urinary metabolites of phthalates are well-accepted exposure biomarkers for adults and children older than 6 years but are not commonly used for infants owing to non-convenient sampling. In the light of this situation, a novel sampling method based on monitoring the urine expressed from the gel diaper was developed. The urine was expressed from the gel absorbent after mixing the absorbent with CaCl2 and then collected by a laboratory-made device; the urinary phthalate metabolites were extracted and cleaned using a solid-phase extraction (SPE) column and analyzed with high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry / mass spectrometry. To evaluate the method's feasibility, the following factors were investigated: the proportion of CaCl2 to gel absorbent, the urination volume variation and the target compounds’ deposition bias in the diaper, the matrix blank of the different diaper brands, the storage stabilities and the recoveries of creatinine and phthalate metabolites in the expressed urine. Mono-methyl phthalate, mono-ethyl phthalate, mono-butyl phthalate, mono-benzyl phthalate, mono-2-ethylhexyl phthalate and mono-2-ethyl-5-oxohexyl phthalate were involved. 70–80% of the urine can be expressed from the diaper, and the expressed spiking recoveries and the limit of detection of mono-phthalates ranged from 88.5–115% and 0.21–0.50 ng/ml. The method was applied to measure phthalate metabolites in 65 gel diaper samples from 15 infants, and the pilot data suggests the infants are commonly exposed to phthalates. In summary, the method for monitoring of infant exposure to phthalates is sound and validated, and the potential health effects from the vulnerable infants’ exposure to phthalates should be concerned.

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Acknowledgements

We sincerely thank the participant parents of this study for providing their infants’ diaper samples, as well as others who gave us assistance. The present work was sponsored by the 39th Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars (SRF for ROCS) form the State Education Ministry (SEM) of China, Hundred Talent Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) for 2010 on Human Exposure to Environmental Pollutants and Health Effects, CAS/SAFEA International Partnership Program for Creative Research Teams (KZCX2-YW-T08).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, China

    Liangpo Liu, Tongwei Xia, Jie Zhang, Sijun Dong & Heqing Shen

  2. School of Environmental Studies, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China

    Tongwei Xia

  3. School of Public Health of Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China

    Lihua Guo, Lanyu Cao & Benhua Zhao

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  1. Liangpo Liu
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Correspondence to Heqing Shen.

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Liu, L., Xia, T., Guo, L. et al. Expressing urine from a gel disposable diaper for biomonitoring using phthalates as an example. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 22, 625–631 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2012.51

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