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Occurrence and human exposure of parabens and their chlorinated derivatives in swimming pools

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Abstract

As an emerging group of endocrine-disrupting chemicals, parabens have attracted growing attention due to their potential effects on human health. In the present study, the occurrence and distribution of eight parabens, four chlorinated parabens, and their common hydrolysis product, p-hydroxybenzoic acid (PHBA), were investigated in 39 swimming pools in Beijing, China. Methyl paraben and propyl paraben were the predominant compounds in swimming pools, accounting for 91.2 % of the total parabens. It is noteworthy that octyl paraben, a paraben with longer chain, was firstly detected in this study. There were several factors affecting the levels of parabens among the 39 swimming pools. The concentrations of parabens and chlorinated derivatives detected in indoor pools (144 ng L−1) were roughly 20-fold higher than those in outdoor pools (6.78 ng L−1). Hotel pools appear to present higher level of target compounds (361 ng L−1) than that in health club (228 ng L−1), municipal (130 ng L−1), school (75.6 ng L−1), and community pools (63.0 ng L−1). Moreover, the level of these compounds in pools during weekends (174 ng L−1) was much higher than that during weekdays (52.3 ng L−1). The dynamics of target compounds were also investigated to provide a general trend of the level of parabens in a school indoor swimming pool during a 14-week period. Human exposure assessment was conducted to estimate the potential risk of exposure to parabens and their chlorinated derivatives in swimming pools. Considering the total exposure dose of multiple parabens, human exposure to parabens from the water of swimming pools is negligible. However, the threat of these parabens to children in swimming pool should be concerned.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2014CB114402), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21407008, 21477143, 21321004, and 21277011), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB14010201), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (FRF-BR-13-005), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2014 M550619), and State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (KF2013-07).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry and Biological Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China

    Wenhui Li, Lihong Gao & Jiemin Liu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China

    Yali Shi & Yaqi Cai

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  1. Wenhui Li
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  2. Yali Shi
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Correspondence to Jiemin Liu or Yaqi Cai.

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Responsible editor: Hongwen Sun

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Li, W., Shi, Y., Gao, L. et al. Occurrence and human exposure of parabens and their chlorinated derivatives in swimming pools. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 17987–17997 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-5050-1

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