Premature breast development (thelarche) is the growth of mammary tissue in girls younger than 8 years of age without other manifestations of puberty. Puerto Rico has the highest known incidence of premature thelarche ever reported. In the last two decades since this serious public health anomaly has been observed, no explanation for this phenomenon has been found. Some organic pollutants, incl...

A Cadmium (II) ion-selective electrode (ISE) based on Thia polymeric crown ether (SPCE-Cd2+) as a membrane carrier in PVC matrix was successfully built for the determination of Cd2+ ions. Using Dimethyl phthalate (DMP) plasticizer, showed Nernstian liner response spanning range 1*10-1 to 1*10-7 M with slope (28) ±2 mV per decade charge and detection limit 1*10-9 M. The sensor has 10-second time...

Ion mobility spectrometry was used to monitor the degradation of phthalate vapors by corona discharge. Three different phthalates (dimethyl [DMP], diethyl [DEP], and dipropyl [DPP]) were examined in a discharge reactor (wire-to-cylinder geometry) at direct current positive polarity ambient air. The relative removal efficiencies up 96% energetical 229.27, 216.12, 198.84 kJ mg−1 achieved for DMP,...

The hydroxyl radical ((•)OH) is one of the main oxidative species in aqueous phase advanced oxidation processes, and its initial reactions with organic pollutants are important to understand the transformation and fate of organics in water environments. Insights into the kinetics and mechanism of (•)OH mediated degradation of the model environmental endocrine disruptor, dimethyl phthalate (DMP)...