Urinary levels of seven phthalate metabolites in the U.S. population from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2000.

We measured the urinary monoester metabolites of seven commonly used phthalates in approximately 2,540 samples collected from participants of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 1999-2000, who were greater than or equal to 6 years of age. We found detectable levels of metabolites monoethyl phthalate (MEP), monobutyl phthalate (MBP), monobenzyl phthalate (MBzP), and mono-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (MEHP) in > 75% of the samples, suggesting widespread exposure in the United States to diethyl phthalate, dibutyl phthalate or diisobutylphthalate, benzylbutyl phthalate, and di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, respectively. We infrequently detected monoisononyl phthalate, mono-cyclohexyl phthalate,…