The association of personal care products uses and dietary habits with the urinary concentration of parabens in Iranian adults

ABSTRACT

We evaluated the relationships between the use of individual personal care products (PCPs) and food items with the urinary Methylparaben (MP), Ethylparaben (EP), Propylparaben (PP) and Butylparaben (BP) among 178 Iranian adults. The urinary concentrations of parabens were found to be significantly different between low, medium, and high users of PCPs (P < 0.05). The frequency of PCP use was associated with higher urinary MP, PPand BP concentrations. Significant positive association was found between the frequency of food products use and urinary MP and EP concentrations. The urinary concentration of parabens was higher in individuals who used body wash, makeup base, shaving cream and, lotion in the past 24 h compared to non-users. Consumers of cookies and dairy products had significantly higher urinary MP and jelly consumers had higher urinary MP and PP concentrations than non-consumers. Our findings indicated that certain types of foods and PCPs could be important sources of exposure to parabens.

KEYWORDS:

• Urinary parabens
• personal care products
• biomonitoring
• foodstuffs
• exposure

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences for their cooperation in this study.

Compliance with ethical standards

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (Code: IR.MUI.RESEARCH.REC.1397.339). The procedures used in this study adhere to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki.

Consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Supplementary material

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Additional information

Funding

This research was financially supported by the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences.