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.
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
RSS