engleski

Phthalate esters in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottled water stored under common conditions

Due to the increasing popularity of drinking water stored in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, the potential health effects of the possible migration of chemical compounds from packaging into the water has become an important issue. Although ortho- phthalate esters as plasticizers are generally not used in the manufacturing of PET, several reports suggest that they still may be found in PET bottles and/or in the bottle content. Public health concerns related to the potential leaching of phthalate esters from PET bottles into the water have been raised due to their potential endocrine-disrupting effects. This study aimed to determine the concentrations of seven phthalate esters (dimethyl phthalate – DMP, diethyl phthalate – DEP), dibutyl phthalate – DBP, di-iso-butyl phthalate – DiBP, benzyl butyl phthalate – BBP, bis(2- ethylhexyl) phthalate – DEHP and di-n-octyl phthalate – DOP) in commercially available carbonated (Jamnica) and non-carbonated (Jana) natural mineral water. The influence of storage time (0, 7, 30, 90 and 180 days) on the leaching of phthalates from plastic to water was investigated in several types of PET packaging (virgin PET of higher and lower density, 100%-recycled PET) stored at room temperature, representing common storage conditions for consumers. Phthalates were extracted from water with dichloromethane and analysed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. In all of the analysed samples, the concentration of DMP, BBP and DOP was below the limit of detection. After 180 days, somewhat higher concentrations of DEP, DBP and DEHP were measured in non- carbonated water compared to carbonated water. However, phthalate compounds were present in low concentrations (<2.52 µg/L) in all of the analysed samples, even after several month of storage. The measured concentrations of DEHP met the recommendations of the World Health Organization [1] for drinking water (<8 μg/L), but for the other analysed phthalates there are no comparable health guidelines. Acknowledgement This work was financially supported by the grant Development of functional beverage in sustainable packaging – JamINNO+ (KK.01.2.1.02.0305) funded by the European Regional Development Fund within the Operational programme Competitiveness and Cohesion 2014- 2020. References [1] World Health Organization (WHO), Guidelines for drinking-water quality, 4 th ed., 2011.

PET ; phthalate esters ; GC-MS ; mineral water

nije evidentirano