Exposure to environmental chemicals among Korean adults-updates from the second Korean National Environmental Health Survey (2012–2014)

Abstract

National biomonitoring program can offer solid scientific evidence on exposure profiles of environmental chemicals at a national level, and provide a snapshot of changing exposure level over time. Therefore, several countries have maintained such programs for developing environmental health policies. The Korean National Environmental Health Survey (KoNEHS) was designed to understand the level of human exposure to environmental chemicals by time and location, and to identify possible sources of such exposure. The 2nd stage of KoNEHS, which was conducted between 2012 and 2014, examined a total of 6478 adult subjects over 19 years of age, and measured 21 environmental chemicals of major policy concern. Compared to the findings from the first stage monitoring (2009-2011), slightly higher levels of blood lead were observed, while those of mercury remained similar. Blood metal concentrations, however, were higher than those reported from national biomonitoring programs of United States, Germany and Canada. The urinary concentrations of phthalates metabolites were lower, but those of t,t-muconic acid and BPA were higher than those reported in the first stage survey. The urinary cotinine level decreased perhaps reflecting general declining patterns of first- and second-hand smoking. The results of the second stage survey were made available for public use since April 2016. Some policy efforts appear to be at least in part effective on mitigating chemical exposure among people, e.g., urinary phthalate metabolites and cotinine, while further confirmations are warranted. In-depth assessments will be conducted to identify vulnerable groups and important exposure pathways.

Lead, Mercury, and Cadmium Exposure in the Korean General Population

“…The geometric mean concentration of Pb in whole blood was 1.82 µg/dL in all subjects and 2.22 µg/dL in adult subjects (older than 19 years of age), which was not too much different from previous national surveys in Korean such as KNHEBE (1.72 µg/dL for > 18 years, survey year 2007–2008), KNHANES (2.289 µg/dL for > 19 years, survey year 2008–2010), and KoNEHS (1.94 µg/dL for > 18 years, survey year 2012–2014) 567. The level of blood Pb in Koreans was higher than Americans (0.97 µg/dL for 1–74 years of age in NHANES, survey year 2011–2012) and Canadians (1.10 µg/dL for 3–79 years of age in CHMS, survey year 2012–2013), but was similar or a little bit lower than for Germans (3.07 µg/dL for 18–69 years of age in GerES III, survey year 1998; 1.9 µg/dL for 18–70 years of age, survey year 2005) 15161718.…”

“…Recently, Korea undertook to prepare representative exposure data for heavy metals as part of the Korean National Human Exposure and Bio-monitoring Examination (KNHEBE), Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES), and Korean National Environmental Health Survey (KoNEHS). However, the data were limited to adults 567…”

The association between mercury concentrations and lipid profiles in the Korean National Environmental Health Survey (KoNEHS) cycle 3

“…The GM of blood mercury concentration in this study was 2.71 μg/L, which was lower than those reported in the 1st KoNEHS (3.08 μg/L) and in the 2nd KoNEHS (3.11 μg/L) [4]. However, it was still higher than the mean blood mercury concentration reported in the NHANES (2009-2010, 1.04 μg/L) and in the Canadian Health Measures Survey cycle 3 (2012-2013, 0.79 μg/L) [25,37].…”

Sex Differences in Neurotoxicogenetics

“…Lead concentrations in blood tend to be higher in men than in women ( Kim et al, 2006 ; Choi et al, 2017 ). Periods of high bone turnover increase absorption of endogenous lead, particularly in women during pregnancy and lactation ( Manton et al, 2003 ).…”