A medical concern and a possible marker for chronic fatigue….pdfVIP

Pure App/. Chern.,Vol. 66,Nos lO/ll,pp. 2103-2106, 1994. Printed in Great Britain. Q 1994IUPAC Di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate: A medical concern and a possible marker for chronic fatigue syndrome Sohail Malik, Margaret A. Kenny and Dedra S. Buchwald Departments of Laboratory Medicine and Medicine, Chemistry Division, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA Abstract: Di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) is a plasticizer which continuously leaches from some plastics into the environment. It is on EPA’s list of carcinogens but there are not extensive data on humans. People who are more in contact with these plastic products are at greater risk of exposure. Hospital patients with high exposure risk were evaluated and their tissues and blood DEHP levels are reported. Elevated DEHP levels were also observed in chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) patients. A correlation is proposed between metal ions depletion and increased circulating DEHP in CFS patients. It was also found that DEHP cross reacts with some antidigoxin polyclonal antibody preparations. This can lead to false positive results in serum digoxin immunoassays and may indirectly endanger patients on digoxin therapy. Di-Zethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) is today’s most widely used plasticizer. More than 500 plasticizers are commercially produced worldwide and DEHP accounts for more than 50% of the total production (1). It is added to plastic to increase its flexibility and processability. The estimated annual production of DEHP is over 1300million tons. This makes it a substantial threat to humans and environment (2). Being a non-integral component of plastic pro