Assessing the impact of a single biomarker measurement to reconstruct the exposure of pregnant women to Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate

Abstract : Large-scale human biomonitoring surveys typically gather biomarker measurements from single time points. For non-persistent compounds (i.e., with a biological half-life of hours), the biomarker levels are known to greatly vary within the same individual over a relatively short time period. In this work, we aimed at assessing the impact of a single biomarker measurement to reconstruct the exposure of individuals to a non-persistent compound (a phthalate) by testing several sampling scenarios. In particular, we studied the exposure of pregnant women to Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) using the urinary concentrations of four DEHP metabolites. Phthalates are a family of chemicals that can be found in a wide array of products, and are suspected to induce reproductive and developmental toxicity.