Hazards of diethyl phthalate (DEP) exposure: A systematic review of animal toxicology studies.

Background: Diethyl phthalate (DEP) is widely used in many commercially available products including plastics and personal care products. DEP has generally not been found to share the antiandrogenic mode of action that is common among other types of phthalates, but there is emerging evidence that DEP may be associated with other types of health effects.

Objective: To inform chemical risk assessment, we performed a systematic review to identify and characterize outcomes within six broad hazard categories (male reproductive, female reproductive, developmental, liver, kidney, and cancer) following exposure of nonhuman mammalian animals to DEP or its primary metabolite, monoethyl phthalate (MEP).

Hazards of diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP) exposure: A systematic review of animal toxicology studies.

Background: Biomonitoring studies indicate a trend towards increased human exposure to diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP), a replacement for dibutyl phthalate (DBP). Recent reviews have found DIBP to be a male reproductive toxicant, but have not evaluated other hazards of DIBP exposure.

Objective: To inform chemical risk assessment, we performed a systematic review to identify and characterize outcomes within six broad hazard categories (male reproductive, female reproductive, developmental, liver, kidney, and cancer) following exposure of nonhuman mammalian animals to DIBP or the primary metabolite, monoisobutyl phthalate (MIBP).

Iron transport & homeostasis mechanisms: their role in health & disease.

Iron is an essential trace metal required by all living organisms and is toxic in excess. Nature has evolved a delicately balanced network to monitor iron entry, transport it to sites of need, and serve as a unique storage and recycling system, in the absence of an excretory system, to remove excess iron. Due to the unique nature of iron metabolism, iron homeostasis is achieved by integrated specialized mechanisms that operate at the cellular and organism level.

Potential considerations & concerns in the risk characterization for the interaction profiles of metals.

The contaminants of concern for smelting and mining sites include arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn). Risk assessments for such sites need to consider whether toxicity values can be developed for this mixture, and if not, whether interactions among the individual components are significant and can be incorporated quantitatively into the assessment. No information is available for the risk characterization of the toxic interactions of AsCdPbZn mixtures.