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New studies raise concerns over DINP, DIDP and DINCH plasticizers
HEALTH & SAFETY
packs are available that include a calibration certification which an X-Rite service technician or user can easily install, the company says. A lamp service indicator light helps to ensure lighting consistency by notifying users when light sources need replacement. According to X-Rite, the light booth is durable and easy to clean thanks to its metal construction and a powder coating finish. Precise control of lighting conditions is critical to the effective visual evaluation of colour, explains Chris Winczewski, VP of product marketing, X-Rite. ‘The impact of getting colour wrong can be significant – rejected final products, increased costs and rework, longer time to market, and dissatisfied customers’, he comments. For optimum results, samples should be examined using a light booth with the ability to duplicate almost any lighting environment, he says. ‘This flexibility allows you to determine how your colour will look in the factory, a fluorescent-lit store, a home environment, outdoors or wherever else your products will be seen. The new Judge QC light booth does just that’, claims Winczewski. Contact: X-Rite Europe GmbH, Regensdorf, Switzerland. Tel: +41 44 842 24 00, Web: www.xrite.com
ENVIRONMENT, HEALTH AND SAFETY ISSUES New studies raise concerns over DINP, DIDP and DINCH plasticizers
R
esearchers at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York, USA, have published findings that link plasticizers diisononyl phthalate (DINP) and diisodecyl phthalate (DIDP) to a rise in the risk of hypertension and diabetes in children and adolescents. Elsewhere, an in vitro study at Canada’s McGill University suggests that metabo-
November 2015
lites of phthalate-replacement plasticizer DINCH may have a disruptive impact on the mammalian endocrine system. The NYU Langone team has published two related articles this year in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (JCEM) and Hypertension. The latter study, on a group of subjects aged 12 to 19, showed a ‘significant association’ between the level of DINP and DIDP in blood and urine samples and the subjects’ blood pressure. Specifically, the researchers say, for every tenfold increase in the amount of phthalates consumed, there was a 1.1 mmHg rise in blood pressure. The earlier JCEM study also linked insulin resistance (a precursor to diabetes) to DINP and DIDP concentrations. ‘One in three adolescents with the highest DINP levels had the highest insulin resistance, while for those with the lowest concentrations of the chemicals, only one in four had insulin resistance’, the team reports [for more details go to: nyulangone.org/press-releases]. DINCH (1,2-cyclohexanedicarboxylic acid, diisononyl ester) is widely used as an alternative to phthalate plasticizers and is approved and certified by many authorities and institutions worldwide. The research team at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC), which has previously studied the effects of phthalates, decided to evaluate the effects of DINCH and two of its major metabolites (CHDA and MINCH) with in vitro experiments on the adipose tissue of rats. Their study showed that MINCH acts as a metabolic disrupter by affecting how fat is made in the body. They also found that, similar to phthalates, the effect of MINCH was mediated by a receptor involved in both the metabolic and endocrine systems, which allowed the researchers to infer that MINCH could interfere with the endocrine system in mammals. Describing the finding that MINCH can affect metabolism as ‘concerning’, the RI-MUHC team concludes that it is ‘currently difficult to assess whether DINCH exposure represents a risk to human health’, but suggests that specific populations such as occupational workers could be at risk if the level of DINCH reaches environmental levels as high as DEHP. The research is published in Elsevier journal Environmental Research, (Volume 140, July 2015, pp. 145–146).
Additives for Polymers
11
packs are available that include a calibration certification which an X-Rite service technician or user can easily install, the company says. A lamp service indicator light helps to ensure lighting consistency by notifying users when light sources need replacement. According to X-Rite, the light booth is durable and easy to clean thanks to its metal construction and a powder coating finish. Precise control of lighting conditions is critical to the effective visual evaluation of colour, explains Chris Winczewski, VP of product marketing, X-Rite. ‘The impact of getting colour wrong can be significant – rejected final products, increased costs and rework, longer time to market, and dissatisfied customers’, he comments. For optimum results, samples should be examined using a light booth with the ability to duplicate almost any lighting environment, he says. ‘This flexibility allows you to determine how your colour will look in the factory, a fluorescent-lit store, a home environment, outdoors or wherever else your products will be seen. The new Judge QC light booth does just that’, claims Winczewski. Contact: X-Rite Europe GmbH, Regensdorf, Switzerland. Tel: +41 44 842 24 00, Web: www.xrite.com
ENVIRONMENT, HEALTH AND SAFETY ISSUES New studies raise concerns over DINP, DIDP and DINCH plasticizers
R
esearchers at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York, USA, have published findings that link plasticizers diisononyl phthalate (DINP) and diisodecyl phthalate (DIDP) to a rise in the risk of hypertension and diabetes in children and adolescents. Elsewhere, an in vitro study at Canada’s McGill University suggests that metabo-
November 2015
lites of phthalate-replacement plasticizer DINCH may have a disruptive impact on the mammalian endocrine system. The NYU Langone team has published two related articles this year in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (JCEM) and Hypertension. The latter study, on a group of subjects aged 12 to 19, showed a ‘significant association’ between the level of DINP and DIDP in blood and urine samples and the subjects’ blood pressure. Specifically, the researchers say, for every tenfold increase in the amount of phthalates consumed, there was a 1.1 mmHg rise in blood pressure. The earlier JCEM study also linked insulin resistance (a precursor to diabetes) to DINP and DIDP concentrations. ‘One in three adolescents with the highest DINP levels had the highest insulin resistance, while for those with the lowest concentrations of the chemicals, only one in four had insulin resistance’, the team reports [for more details go to: nyulangone.org/press-releases]. DINCH (1,2-cyclohexanedicarboxylic acid, diisononyl ester) is widely used as an alternative to phthalate plasticizers and is approved and certified by many authorities and institutions worldwide. The research team at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC), which has previously studied the effects of phthalates, decided to evaluate the effects of DINCH and two of its major metabolites (CHDA and MINCH) with in vitro experiments on the adipose tissue of rats. Their study showed that MINCH acts as a metabolic disrupter by affecting how fat is made in the body. They also found that, similar to phthalates, the effect of MINCH was mediated by a receptor involved in both the metabolic and endocrine systems, which allowed the researchers to infer that MINCH could interfere with the endocrine system in mammals. Describing the finding that MINCH can affect metabolism as ‘concerning’, the RI-MUHC team concludes that it is ‘currently difficult to assess whether DINCH exposure represents a risk to human health’, but suggests that specific populations such as occupational workers could be at risk if the level of DINCH reaches environmental levels as high as DEHP. The research is published in Elsevier journal Environmental Research, (Volume 140, July 2015, pp. 145–146).
Additives for Polymers
11