Regional Variation in Human Exposure to Persistent Organic Pollutants in the United States, NHANES

Abstract

We examined serum levels of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) among geographical regions of the United States as defined by the US Census Bureau. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data for adults aged 20 years and older are presented for selected survey periods between 1999 and 2010. From NHANES 1999 through 2004, dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE) concentration levels were consistently higher among people living in the West than in the Midwest, Northeast, or South. In 2003–2010, perfluorinated compound concentrations tended to be highest in the South. The sum of 35 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) congeners was significantly higher in the Northeast [GM: 189; 95% CI: 173–204 ng/g lipid] than the remaining regions. The regional differences in higher body burdens of exposure to particular POPs could be attributed to a variety of activities, including region-specific patterns of land use and industrial and agricultural chemical applications, as well as different levels of regulatory activity.

Serum Polybrominated Biphenyls (PBBs) and Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) and Thyroid Function among Michigan Adults Several Decades after the 1973–1974 PBB Contamination of Livestock Feed

“…Although PBBs and PCBs are no longer in production, exposure to PCBs remains widespread in human serum owing to their long biologic half-lives as well as to their persistence in the food chain ( Sjödin et al 2014 ; Wattigney et al 2015 ; Xue et al 2014 ). Furthermore, they share structural similarities with their replacements such as PBDEs and with newer flame retardants currently being produced, such as tetrabromobisphenol A and hexabromocyclododecane ( Birnbaum and Staskal 2004 ).…”

Deterministic modeling of the exposure of individual participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) to polychlorinated biphenyls

“…While the geographic location of NHANES participants is condential, reported regional differences in human PCB concentrations are minor: the geometric mean concentration was only 1.4 times greater for people living in the Northeastern US than elsewhere in the nation. 49 While this justies our approach of using the output of a single BETR-Global cell as the input for the food chain calculations, we also used our model to explore the extent of regional concentration differences that could be expected if the American diet were sourced regionally. By varying the BETR-Global cells chosen to drive contamination in the food chain, we predict regional geographic differences in human PCB-153 concentrations of at most a factor of two compared to our reference calculations (data not shown).…”

Adolescents exposed to the World Trade Center collapse have elevated serum dioxin and furan concentrations more than 12 years later

“…Absent this potential misclassification, we would expect to see an even greater contrast in PCDD/F levels between WTCHR and non-WTCHR participants. It is also possible that background PCDD/F levels are generally higher in NYC than in the U.S. overall, although a recent analysis of regional variation in adult serum levels of persistent organic pollutants based on 2001–4 NHANES data found no difference in 1,2,3,6,7,8-HexCDD or 1,2,3,4,6,7,8-HepCDD levels (the only two PCDD/Fs measured) between the Northeast and the rest of the country (Wattigney, Irvin-Barnwell et al 2015).…”