National screening study investigating nine phthalates and one adipate in raw and treated tap water in France

The goal of this study was to determine the potential exposure of much of the French population to nine phthalates and bis (2-ethylhexyl) adipate (DEHA) due to water consumption. The occurrence of these compounds was investigated in raw and treated water from public water systems. Water samples were collected in one sampling campaign equally distributed across 101 Frenchdepartements(a French administrative unit) from November 2015 to July 2016. In all, 271 raw water samples and 283 treated water samples were collected. A specific sampling protocol was conducted in order to assess phthalate pollution during sampling and analysis, and to produce reliable results. Field blanks were thus collected at the same time as real samples at each sampling point. The contamination detected in field blanks was due to diethyl phthalate (DEP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP), and di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), which are common phthalate interferences in blanks. Their concentrations were never ten times higher than the limits of quantification (LOQ). In tap water, the most frequently detected compound was DBP, at a maximum concentration of 1300 ng/L. In raw water, however, DEP was the most frequently detected analyte with concentrations ranging from 255 to 406 ng/L, while DIBP was observed at a maximum concentration of 1650 ng/L. It is worth mentioning that DEHP-the most widely used phthalate-was only detected in one sample of raw water. Phthalates are not concentrated in any particular area of France in either raw or treated water.