The study was carried out on 32 samples of human milk, obtained from women living in Siena and its district, in central Italy. The contaminant's extraction was done using an ion-pairing extraction procedure, and then the concentrations were determined using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS).
The results show the presence of MEHP in each sample (mean value 17.41 ng/g w.w.), while DEHP has never been detected. Comparing the results of these analyses with a previous work, carried out on Italian breast milk samples, we have found a higher mean level of MEHP but a lower maximum level.
In order to quantify the amount of the molecules of interest transmitted by mother to child during breast feeding, we estimated the daily intake of MEHP that resulted lower than safety limits.