Assessment of the exposure of Spanish children and adolescents to bisphenols and parabens using dietary and human biomonitoring data.

Abstract

Bisphenols A and S (BPA, BPS) and methylparaben (MetPB) are considered endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). The development of approaches for more realistic estimation of exposure to these EDCs is crucial for understanding the extent of the actual burden in the population. Dietary exposure to BPA, BPS, and MetPB in Spanish children (3-12 years old) was estimated using 3 different approaches. The 24-h dietary recall (R24h) and food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) were used, together with reverse dosimetry applied to human biomonitoring (HBM) data to calculate daily intake (DI). Based on R24h and FFQ, average daily intakes for a total of 389 children were estimated to be 211/344, 148/469 and 3443/6185 ng·kg^-1 per day for BPA, BPS and MetPB, respectively. Substantially lower values (56, 17 and 685 ng·kg^-1 per day) were estimated from HBM data for BPA, BPS and MetPB, respectively. Based on R24h and DI-derived exposure estimates for BPA, the proportion of the population exceeding the EFSA TDI was 98.7 % and 100 %, respectively. In contrast, 38.6 % (R24h) and 3.9 % (DI) of the study population were observed to exceed the BfR TDI. The present study provides novel data on exposure to bisphenols and parabens using three complementary approaches: FFQ, R24h and HBM. Overall, R24h and FFQ yielded comparable exposure values; however, differences between methods should be interpreted in consideration of their distinct methodological assumptions and temporal representativeness. In contrast, HBM may not fully capture daily dietary intake due to its reliance on a single spot urine sample instead of a 24h sample. Further studies on exposure should be conducted in order to gather more data for comparison.