June 26, 2001

Alkylphenols Bulletin: German Academicians Find Alkylphenols Safe for Human Use

The Alkylphenols Bulletin periodically notifies manufacturers and users of alkylphenols and their derivatives of national and international developments of interest. For further information, please contact the APE Research Council at the address below.

The safe use of alkylphenols was confirmed in a recent publication from a team of respected German academic scientists. The researchers conducted a human health safety assessment for the alkylphenols nonylphenol (NP) and octylphenol (OP), which took into consideration the weak estrogen-like activity observed at high doses in their animal studies.

NP is used to produce trisnonylphenol phosphite (TNPP), an antioxidant and stabilizer used in plastics and other polymers. NP and OP are reacted with ethylene oxide to product alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEs). APEs are used as consumer and institutional cleaning agents and in other high value products in a wide range of industries such as paper, textile and paint manufacture.

The conclusions from the new assessment included:

1. Human exposure to NP is extremely low (2 ug/kg/day maximum).

2. Human exposure to OP is even lower due to its different use patterns and applications.

3. OP estrogenic potency is about the same as daidzein, a phytoestrogen found at high levels in some foods including soy. OP is approximately 20,000 times less potent than reference estrogens such as the oral contraceptive, ethinylestradiol. The assessment assumed NP's estrogenic potency was the same as OP. Estrogenic potency is determined by evaluating the effects of a substance on the uterus in animals.

4. The margin of safety for NP was sufficiently high "…to ensure the absence of a practical risk to human health under the present exposure conditions." The assessment used a novel hygiene-based margin of safety approach (HBMOS). An HBMOS was defined as the ratio of the estimated daily intake of a substance to its in vivo estrogenic potency (i.e., estrogenic potency in living animals).

The conclusions on exposure levels and safety of use are consistent with APE Research Council estimates. An abstract of the publication can be obtained at http://link.springer-ny.com/link/service/journals/00204/index.htm (Archives of Toxicology, Volume 74 (11), 649-662 (2001).

 

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