Occupational and environmental medicine
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We investigated the relationship between urinary metabolites of di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) and reproductive hormones in workers of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) production plants. After exposure, most of the DEHP is rapidly metabolised to mono(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (MEHP), mono(2-ethyl-5-hydroxyhexyl) phthalate (MEHHP) and mono(2-ethyl-5-oxohexyl) phthalate (MEOHP), which may be associated with reproductive hormone interruption and testicular toxicity. Some studies report that urinary concentrations of phthalate metabolites for plastics workers are significantly higher than for the general population. However, little is known about the disruption of reproductive hormones for DEHP exposure workers. ⋯ Relationships between reproductive hormones and the total urinary concentration of DEHP metabolites in male PVC production workers were significantly positive. This indicated that aromatase activity had increased in male workers exposed to DEHP, which is consistent with animal studies.