Blood transfusion impact on levels of some phthalate esters in blood, urine and breast milk of some nursing mothers in Ibadan South-Western Nigeria

Studies had suggested possible association between polymer products and phthalate esters exposures in humans, but only a few had studied the level of phthalates that leaches out of these polymers into blood, which would eventually be detectable in urine or breast milk samples of blood transfusion recipients. This study examined the level of diethyl phthalate (DEP), dipropyl phthalate (DPP), di-n-butyl phthalate (DnBP), diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), monoethyl phthalate (MEP), monopropyl phthalate (MPP), monobutyl phthalate (MBP), mono-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (MEHP), mono-2-ethyl-5-hydroxyhexyl phthalate (MEHHP) and mono-2-ethyl-5-hydroxyhexyl phthalate (MEOHP) using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry in blood, urine and breast milk samples of mothers who had blood transfusion during intra-partum care. We also examined the level of phthalates in some controls who were mothers who had no transfusion at all during intra-partum care. The transfused mothers had significantly high levels of MEHHP, MEHP, MPP and DEHP in all of their samples and high DBP and MEP in almost all of the samples. Other phthalates were also detected at high concentrations, although relatively low levels of these were detected in all of the control samples. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed significant difference between the samples and controls. In this study, a positive association between blood transfusion and phthalate exposure in transfused mothers was established.