Hidden Toxicity in Neonatal Intensive Care Units: Phthalate Exposure in Very Low Birth Weight Infants.

Objective: To determine exposure to endocrine-disrupting phthalates in preterm infants in neonatal intensive care units (NICU).

Methods: Urine samples (n=151) from 36 preterm infants (<32 weeks of gestation and/or <1500 g of birth weight) were collected on the first 3 days of admission to the NICU and biweekly thereafter. Diethylhexyl phthalate contents of indwelling medical devices used in various procedures and the concentrations of phthalate metabolites in the urine samples were analyzed.

Formaldehyde migration in aqueous extracts from paper and cardboard food packaging materials in Turkey.

Migration of formaldehyde to aqueous extracts from paper and cardboard food packaging materials was determined by an ultraviolet visible-spectrophotometric method at 410 nm. Intraday and interday precision of the method, expressed as coefficient of variation, varied between 1.5 to 4.