Abstract
Background
Phthalates are endocrine-disrupting chemicals that are widely present in consumer products. In the United States, Black women are more highly exposed to phthalates than other racial/ethnic groups, yet information on predictors of phthalate exposure among Black women is limited.
Objective
We evaluated the association of demographics, lifestyle, reproductive history, and personal care product use with urinary concentrations of phthalate and phthalate alternative metabolites, using cross-sectional data from a study of 754 Black women from Detroit, Michigan (2010–2012).
Methods
Women completed questionnaires and provided urine specimens which were analyzed for 16 phthalate and phthalate alternative metabolites. We used linear regression models to estimate mean percentage differences and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) in concentrations across levels of correlates.
Results
Monoethyl phthalate (MEP) and MBP concentrations were positively associated with personal care product use, particularly nail products. Educational attainment was positively associated with high molecular weight phthalate concentrations but inversely associated with monobenzyl phthalate (MBzP) concentrations. Parity was positively associated with MBzP concentrations and inversely associated with concentrations of MEP and high molecular weight phthalates.
Significance
We found that sociodemographics, reproductive characteristics, and use of certain personal care products were associated with urinary phthalate concentrations among Black women. Our results emphasize the importance of examining exposure determinants among multiply marginalized populations.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Quaker E. Harmon for facilitating use of the SELF data and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on the manuscript.
Funding
This research was funded primarily by the extramural program of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (R01-ES024749). In addition, the research was supported in part by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and in part by funds allocated for health research by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The funding sources had no role in study design; collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the article for publication.
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In the last 3 years, LAW has served as a consultant for AbbVie, Inc. and has accepted in-kind donations from Swiss Precision Diagnostics, Sandstone Diagnostics, FertilityFriend.com, and Kindara for primary data collection in Pregnancy Study Online. The remaining authors declare that they have no actual or potential conflict of interest.
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Wesselink, A.K., Fruh, V., Hauser, R. et al. Correlates of urinary concentrations of phthalate and phthalate alternative metabolites among reproductive-aged Black women from Detroit, Michigan. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 31, 461–475 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-020-00270-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-020-00270-9
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