The Association between Asthma and Allergic Symptoms in Children and Phthalates in House Dust: A Nested Case–Control Study

By C. Bornehag, J. Sundell, C. Weschler, T. Sigsgaard, B. Lundgren, M. Hasselgren, L. Hägerhed-Engman. Environmental Health Perspectives, 2004

855 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Global phthalate ester production has increased from very low levels at the end of World War II to approximately 3.5 million metric tons/year. The aim of the present study was to investigate potential associations between persistent allergic symptoms in children, which have increased markedly in developed countries over the past three decades, and the concentration of phthalates in dust collected from their homes. This investigation is a case–control study nested within a cohort of 10,852 children. From the cohort, we selected 198 cases with persistent allergic symptoms and 202 controls without allergic symptoms. A clinical and a technical team investigated each child and her or his environment. We found higher median concentrations of butyl benzyl phthalate (BBzP) in dust among cases than among controls (0.15 vs. 0.12 mg/g dust). Analyzing the case group by symptoms showed that BBzP was associated with rhinitis (p = 0.001) and eczema (p = 0.001), whereas di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) was associated with asthma (p = 0.022). Furthermore, dose–response relationships for these associations are supported by trend analyses. This study shows that phthalates, within the range of what is normally found in indoor environments, are associated with allergic symptoms in children. We believe that the different associations of symptoms for the three major phthalates—BBzP, DEHP, and di-n-butyl phthalate—can be explained by a combination of chemical physical properties and toxicologic potential. Given the phthalate exposures of children worldwide, the results from this study of Swedish children have global implications.

Subfields: Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/04892178871b0964982c73fc9031445bcca9c531

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Citations in the corpus

Migration of Phthalates from Plastic Containers into Soft Drinks and Mineral Water (2007, background): “The production of phthalates in the world has grown to 3.5 million tonnes per year ( 4 ).”
Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma (ARIA) guidelines: 2010 revision. (2010, background): “An association between asthma and allergic symptoms and phthalates in house dust has been found in children (707).”
Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma (ARIA) 2008 * (2008, background): “An association between asthma and allergic symptoms and phthalates in house dust has been found in children (707).”
Endocrine disruptors: from endocrine to metabolic disruption. (2011, background): “Other developmental effects of phthalate exposure may cause damage to the pulmonary system and may result in asthma (70).”
Cradle-to-cradle design: creating healthy emissions - a strategy for eco-effective product and system design (2007, result): “A recent study led by the Swedish National Testing and Research Institute, for instance, found a link between phthalates, a common plasticizer in PVC plastics, and allergic symptoms in children [14].”