Distribution profiles of bisphenols in school supplies and implications for human exposure

Abstract

Bisphenol compounds (BPs) are usually applied in the production of school supplies, however, little is known on the occurrence of BPs in school supplies. In this study, 15 BPs were detected in 121 samples of school supplies collected from commercial market. Among all compounds studied, BPA, BPF, and BPS were the dominant compounds in school supplies with the detection frequency of 93.15 %, 85.62 % and 82.53 %, respectively, and at median concentrations of 161, 23.64 and 14.11 ng g^-1 dw. The total concentrations of BPs varied among types of school supplies in the following order: paper (median: 1347 ng g^-1 dw) > fabric (521.4 ng g^-1 dw) > plastic (472.7 ng g^-1 dw) > rubber (352.4 ng g^-1 dw). Risk assessment of BPs in school supplies was evaluated by the estimated daily intake (EDI) via dermal absorption, and the median EDIs of ∑15 BPs were 156.78 ng d^-1 (11.27-37,042.37 ng d^-1) and 432.75 ng d^-1 (32.44-91,624.22 ng d^-1) for general and occupational people, respectively.

Keywords: Bisphenols; Emerging contaminants; Human exposure; School supplies.