Human biomonitoring data collected from individuals of the same
age sampled in different years provide within-age temporal trends,
which are often employed to evaluate the effectiveness of chemical
regulatory policies. For polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), this
within-age temporal trend has been observed to vary between congeners
and age groups. We systematically explore the mechanisms responsible
for such variability through simulating human exposure via multiple
exposure pathways to PBDEs released from multiple lifecycle stages.
Our simulation indicates that, after new use of PBDEs is banned, emissions
to the outdoor environment from use and waste disposal outlast those
to the indoor environment from the indoor use phase, leading to slower
decline rates in the contamination of food items sourced from the
outdoor environment than that from indoors. Compared with indoor exposure
pathways, the consumption of contaminated food contributes more to
the exposure (i) to more hydrophobic, recalcitrant congeners, and
(ii) of adults than children, which results in slower rates of decline
in the within-age temporal trend of those congeners and in adults.
The within-age temporal trend is influenced to a lesser extent by the elimination of PBDEs from
the human body, e.g., differences in biotransformation potential of
congeners, growth dilution, and pre- and postnatal exposures by children.
Reliably recording very low ambient concentrations of gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) in remote regions is often required, for example in the context of evaluating how effective the Minamata Convention is...
While occupational inhalation exposure to gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) has decreased in many workplaces as mercury is being removed from many products and processes, it continues to be a concern...
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