Silicone wristbands are promising
passive samplers to support epidemiological
studies in characterizing exposure to organic contaminants; however,
investigating associated health risks remains challenging because
of the latency period for many chronic diseases that take years to
manifest. Dogs provide valuable insights as sentinels for exposure-related
human disease because they share similar exposures in the home, have
shorter life spans, share many clinical/biological features, and have
closely related genomes. Here, we evaluated exposures among pet dogs
and their owners using silicone dog tags and wristbands to determine
if contaminant levels were correlated with validated exposure biomarkers.
Significant correlations between measures on dog tags and wristbands
were observed (r
s = 0.38–0.90; p < 0.05). Correlations with their respective urinary
biomarkers were stronger in dog tags compared to that in human wristbands
(r
s = 0.50–0.71; p < 0.01) for several organophosphate esters. This supports the
value of using silicone bands with dogs to investigate health impacts
on humans from shared exposures.
Concern
regarding the Deepwater Horizon oil crisis has largely
focused on oil and dispersants while the threat of genotoxic metals
in the oil has gone largely overlooked. Genotoxic metals, such as
chromium and nickel, damage DNA and bioaccumulate in organisms, resulting
in persistent exposures. We found chromium and nickel concentrations
ranged from 0.24 to 8.46 ppm in crude oil from the riser, oil from
slicks on surface waters and tar balls from Gulf of Mexico beaches.
We found nickel concentrations ranged from 1.7 to 94.6 ppm wet weight
with a mean of 15.9 ± 3.5 ppm and chromium concentrations ranged
from 2.0 to 73.6 ppm wet weight with a mean of 12.8 ± 2.6 ppm
in tissue collected from Gulf of Mexico whales in the wake of the
crisis. Mean tissue concentrations were significantly higher than
those found in whales collected around the world prior to the spill.
Given the capacity of these metals to damage DNA, their presence in
the oil, and their elevated concentrations in whales, we suggest that
metal exposure is an important understudied concern for the Deepwater
Horizon oil disaster.
Pesticides are used
extensively in residential settings for lawn
maintenance and in homes to control household pests including application
directly on pets to deter fleas and ticks. Pesticides are commonly
detected in the home environment where people and pets can be subject
to chronic exposure. Due to increased interest in using companion
animals as sentinels for human environmental health studies, we conducted
a comparative pesticide exposure assessment in 30 people and their
pet dogs to determine how well silicone wristbands and silicone dog
tags can predict urinary pesticide biomarkers of exposure. Using targeted
gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analyses, we quantified
eight pesticides in silicone samplers and used a suspect screening
approach for additional pesticides. Urine samples were analyzed for
15 pesticide metabolite biomarkers. Several pesticides were detected
in >70% of silicone samplers including permethrin, N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide
(DEET), and chlorpyrifos. Significant and positive correlations were
observed between silicone sampler levels of permethrin and DEET with
their corresponding urinary metabolites (r
s = 0.50–0.96, p < 0.05) in both species.
Significantly higher levels of fipronil were observed in silicone
samplers from participants who reported using flea and tick products
containing fipronil on their dog. This study suggests that people
and their dogs have similar pesticide exposures in a home environment.
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