Maternal serum concentrations of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and their predictors in years with reduced production and use

Abstract

Determining maternal concentrations of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) and the relative impact of various demographic and dietary predictors is important for assessing fetal exposure and for developing proper lifestyle advisories for pregnant women. This study was conducted to investigate maternal PFAS concentrations and their predictors in years when the production and use of several PFASs declined, and to assess the relative importance of significant predictors. Blood from 391 pregnant women participating in The Northern Norway Mother-and-Child Contaminant Cohort Study (MISA) was collected in the period 2007-2009 and serum analyses of 26 PFASs were conducted. Associations between PFAS concentrations, sampling date, and demographic and dietary variables were evaluated by multivariate analyses and linear models including relevant covariates. Parity was the strongest significant predictor for all the investigated PFASs, and nulliparous women had higher concentrations compared to multiparous women (10 ng/mL versus 4.5 ng/mL in median PFOS, respectively). Serum concentrations of PFOS and PFOA of women recruited day 1-100 were 25% and 26% higher, respectively, compared to those women recruited in the last 167 days of the study (day 601-867), and the concentrations of PFNA, PFDA and PFUnDA increased with age. Dietary predictors explained 0-17% of the variation in concentrations for the different PFASs. Significantly elevated concentrations of PFOS, PFNA, PFDA and PFUnDA were found among high consumers of marine food. The concentrations of PFHxS, PFHpS and PFNA were also increased in high consumers of game and elevated concentrations of PFHpS and PFOS were detected in high consumers of white meat. Study subjects with a high intake of salty snacks and beef had significantly higher concentrations of PFOA. The present study demonstrates that parity, sampling date and birth year are the most important predictors for maternal PFAS concentrations in years following a decrease in production and use of several PFASs. Further, dietary predictors of PFAS concentrations were identified and varied in importance according to compound.

Reliability of perfluoroalkyl substances in plasma of 100 women in two consecutive pregnancies

“…On the other hand, maternal PFASs were comparable to another Norwegian study with a similar blood collection period (Berg et al, 2014). …”

“…We estimated a crude average reduction of 44% in both PFOS and PFOA and 47% in PFHxS, while the adjusted changes, estimated with the predicted PFAS levels of the 2 nd pregnancy as derived from the multivariate models, were similar (PFOS= −45%, PFOA= −48%, PFHxS= −57%). A previous study in northern Norwegian pregnant women found similar effect estimates on PFAS levels in relation to having one previous pregnancy (PFOS= −30%, PFOA= −45%, PFHxS= −37%) (Berg et al, 2014). Within the MoBa study and similar to our results, Brantsaeter et al found 46% average reduction of PFOS concentrations for multiparous compared to nulliparous women, while for PFOA and PFHxS the estimates were very different from ours (70% and 19%, respectively) (Brantsaeter et al, 2013).…”

Current exposure of Italian women of reproductive age to PFOS and PFOA: A human biomonitoring study

“…This holds particularly true in the light of some recent toxicological findings (Grandjean and Budtz-Jørgensen, 2013) that showed that immunotoxicity in children might be associated with below average serum concentrations of PFOS and PFOA in women who were of reproductive age in recent population studies (Brede et al, 2010;Kärrman et al, 2013;Axmon et al, 2014;Berg et al, 2014) and below the median concentration values assessed in the present study.…”

Human Exposure and Elimination Kinetics of Chlorinated Polyfluoroalkyl Ether Sulfonic Acids (Cl-PFESAs)

“…41 When comparing the exposure in high fish consumers and metal plating workers with the background control group it should be noted that serum concentrations were not adjusted for demographic factors such as age/birth cohort and gender which are known to be important predictors of human serum concentrations for other PFASs. 42,43 More comprehensive biomonitoring studies from different regions of China are, therefore, needed to better understand the human exposure to PFESAs.…”