The present study investigated the levels of phthalateesters in a total of 86 human milk samples collected among21 breast-feeding mothers over a 6-month
postpartumtime. Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) was the predominantester with the arithmetic mean value of 222 ng g
-1(range: 156-398 ng g
-1, 95% confidence limit), followedby dibutyl phthalate (DBP), 0.87 (range: 0.62-1.2) ng g
-1.Diethyl phthalate (DEP), with a mean of 0.31 ng g
-1, wasdetected in only a small number of samples. Weak correlationsbetween lipid content and levels of phthalate esterswere observed. The levels of phthalate esters in humanmilk fluctuated over the 6-month
period; this may indicatea need for multiple sample collection, to calculateaverage concentrations over the feeding
period. Multiplesample collection would provide a better estimate of theexposure of breast-fed infants to phthalate in humanmilk. For infants relying on breast-feeding, the mean dailyintake over the first 6-month
period considering a 7 kginfant consuming 750 g of milk was estimated at 167
gd
-1 for DEHP and less than 1
g d
-1 for DBP and DEP. Whilethe nutritional and social benefits of breast-feeding arewell established, the potential transfer of phthalate estersfrom mothers to breast-fed infants should also berecognized.