Comparison and analysis of different approaches for estimating the human exposure to phthalate esters

The human exposure estimates for dibutyl (DBP) and bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) made by two models EUSES and ACC-Human, and by an estimation approach which utilized measured concentrations in exposure media, were compared. The approach which utilized the latest monitoring data for important exposure media, yielded median daily intakes for adult humans for DBP and DEHP of 2.7 and 5.6 μg/kg body weight per day, respectively, which were in the same range as previous estimates based on back-calculation from urinary metabolites. EUSES estimated average daily intakes of DBP and DEHP for humans that were between 8 and 13 times lower. ACC-Human does not estimate average daily intakes, but ACC-Human-estimated human milk concentrations/fugacities were more than a thousand times lower than measured concentrations/fugacities in human milk. It was concluded that the two models underestimate human exposure to phthalate esters because they consider only a few key pathways that are known to be important for other, more persistent, hydrophobic organic compounds. Further, it was shown that there are differences between the two models on the methodology for estimating concentrations in exposure media such as vegetation, milk, beef and fish. ACC-Human uses a mechanistic approach for estimating transfer through aquatic and terrestrial food chains that are known to be important for human exposure to persistent, hydrophobic organics and can, unlike EUSES, account for food chain metabolism. It proved difficult, however, to obtain organism metabolism rates needed as model inputs to ACC-Human. If exposure estimates of phthalate esters are needed, it is recommended to use an estimation approach based on high quality monitoring data as presented here and/or back-calculate daily intake from concentrations of metabolites in human urine samples from the general population.