Temporal variability in urinary excretion of bisphenol A and seven other phenols in spot, morning, and 24-h urine samples

Human exposure to modern non-persistent chemicals is difficult to ascertain in epidemiological studies as exposure patterns and excretion rates may show temporal and diurnal variations. The aim of this study was to assess the temporal variability in repeated measurements of urinary excretion of bisphenol A (BPA) and seven other phenols. All analytes were determined using TurboFlow-LC–MS/MS. Two spot, three first morning and three 24-h urine samples were collected from 33 young Danish men over a three months period. Temporal variability was estimated by means of intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs). More than 70% of the urine samples had detectable levels of BPA, triclosan (TCS), benzophenone-3 (BP-3) and sum of 2,4-dichlorophenol and 2,5-dichlorophenol (ΣDCP). We found low to moderate ICCs for BPA (0.10–0.42) and ΣDCP (0.39–0.72), whereas the ICCs for BP-3 (0.69–0.80) and TCS (0.55–0.90) were higher. The ICCs were highest for the two spot urine samples, which were collected approximately 4 days apart, compared with the 24-h urine samples and the first morning urine samples, which were collected approximately 40 days apart. A consequence of the considerable variability in urinary excretion of BPA may be misclassification of individual BPA exposure level in epidemiological studies, which may lead to attenuation of the association between BPA and outcomes. Our data do not support that collection of 24-h samples will improve individual exposure assessment for any of the analysed phenols. •BPA, TCS, BP-3 and ΣDCP were detected in >70% of urine samples collected repeatedly.•We found low consistency in repeated measurements of BPA, regardless of sample type.•We found higher consistency in repeated measurements of the phenols TCS and BP-3.•Low BPA consistency leads to risk of exposure misclassification.•Our data do not support that 24-h urine samples improve temporal consistency.