Children who drank beverages contaminated with di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, or DEHP, on a long-term basis are susceptible to reproductive dysfunctions, a medical research center said yesterday.
Children who consume 350ml of tainted fluid containing 12 parts per million (ppm) of DEHP on a daily basis for 12 consecutive months are six to eight times more at risk of developing problems with their reproductive system when they become adults, recent research by the National Health Research Institutes showed.
Institute president Kenneth Wu (伍焜玉) said DEHP is suspected to be an endocrine disruptor, which could lead to the shrinking in size of the penis and testicles in men and thyroid dysfunction.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
DEHP’s effect on children is magnified, because the concentration of the harmful chemical is higher in persons with a lower body mass.
“The health risk of an adult consuming the same amount of DEHP beverage is reduced by half,” Wu said.
The result was based on statistics from a US study in the 1980s that tested DEHP on rats.
“We are not yet sure of the health risks of DEHP on humans because little academic information was found,” Wu said. “But we hope that the incident can help us understand more of the hazard’s ratio.”
Wu said that since DEHP is released from the body naturally within five to 12 hours, the health risks for infrequent consumers are relatively low.
Nevertheless, Liou Saou-hsing (劉紹與), director of the institute’s division of Environmental Health and Occupational Medicine, said that toxic residues might be left in the body once DEHP is eliminated.
Parents who suspect their children may have been harmed by excessive DEHP intake should take their children to the doctor for a checkup, Lin said.
Asked whether DEHP could cause cancer, Wu said there was a lack of research on a large human sample at home and abroad to confirm this.
“This is the first time in the world that so many people have consumed DEHP-tainted drinks,” he said, adding that most research in the US and Europe only focus on small-scale exposures in the environment.
DEHP is classified as Group 2B, or possibly carcinogenic to humans, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
Taiwan is now working with epidemiologists to come up with a two-year, mass questionnaire to trace the health risks of DEHP consumption, Wu said.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS