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DEHP Health Effects

The EPA derived a chronic oral RfD of 0.02 mg/kg/day for DEHP in 1986, based on a “lowest observed adverse effect level” (LOAEL) of 19 mg/kg/day for hepatic effects in guinea pigs noted in a 1953 study, and supplemented by studies from the early 1980s. This RfD was derived before studies were published reporting malformations of the reproductive tract, low-dose health effects, and health effects due to inhalation exposure.

Most early studies on the health effects of DEHP experimented with doses administered to animals above ranges encountered by most people. In the 1970s, DEHP toxicological studies noted that prenatal exposure of rats to DEHP resulted in skeletal malformations, cleft palate, and a decreased number of live fetuses at birth. Several toxicological studies in the 1980s reported that prenatal, suckling, and adult rats exposed to DEHP experienced reduced hepatic enzyme activity. By 1999, researchers established that DEHP alters sexual differentiation in male rats in an anti-androgenic manner, producing malformations of the reproductive tract. Numerous studies on animals subsequently reported DEHP association with diminished testicular function and developmental processes dependent upon androgen. Studies have found that male rodents exposed to DEHP before or shortly after birth exhibit a variety of developmental and reproductive abnormalities, including undescended testicles, reduced anogenital distance, hypospadias, female-like areolas/nipples in infant male rats and other anatomical differences, as well as decreased sperm production and testosterone levels.

Other than a few scattered studies on the potential for female reproductive health effects of DEHP, most of the reproductive studies conducted on DEHP have focused on males. However, a 1994 study reported that female adult rats exposed to high doses of DEHP had suppressed ovulation and polycystic ovaries.

A recent study has noted that prenatal DEHP exposure resulted in adverse effects on rat lung tissue development.

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