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

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, phydroxybenzoic 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.

Impact of the UV Lamp Power on the Formation of Swimming pool Water Treatment By-Products

“…Those compounds belong to the group of pharmaceuticals, personal care product additives, food additives, phthalates and organic solvents. The obtained results correlate with data received for other swimming pools [12,13], which also confirm the presence of a significant number of compounds from the group of PPCPs.…”

Review on Life Cycle of Parabens: Synthesis, Degradation, Characterization and Safety Analysis

“…4). The cosmetics and day care products taken by human may be released to rivers, lakes, underground water [17], swimming pool [18] and other surface water sources. Some may go inside the skin with water media, e.g.…”

The Source of Toxicity of Backwash Water from a Swimming Pool Filter Bed Washings

“…The aim of the presented work is to determine the source of toxicity of filter backwash water. As many micro-organic compounds has been found in swimming pool water [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24], it is highly probable that some of them will be retained and accumulated on the filter beds and washed out of them during their washing. It is suspected that the potential presence of organic micropollutants in washings cause such a high toxic effect as described in previous works [6][7][8][9].…”

“…Most of them are difficult to biode- grade what increases their durability in the environment [26]. The presence of these groups of micropollutants in swimming pool water has been shown in mentioned researches [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. The most commonly identified compounds in swimming pool water are: ibuprofen, caffeine, carbamazepine and oxybenzone (also known as benzophenone-3).…”