Variability in PCB and OH-PCB Serum Levels in Children and Their Mothers in Urban and Rural U.S. Communities

Environmental exposures that affect accumulation of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in humans are complex and not fully understood. One challenge in linking environmental exposure to accumulation is determining variability of PCB concentrations in samples collected from the same person at different...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental science & technology 2014-11, Vol.48 (22), p.13459-13467
Main Authors: Marek, Rachel F, Thorne, Peter S, DeWall, Jeanne, Hornbuckle, Keri C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Blood
Chemical and industrial products toxicology. Toxic occupational diseases
Child
Children & youth
Environmental Monitoring
Environmental Pollutants - blood
Female
Humans
Hydroxylation
Male
Medical sciences
Metabolites
Mothers
PCB
Polychlorinated biphenyls
Polychlorinated Biphenyls - blood
Rural Population
Toxicology
United States
Urban Population
Various organic compounds
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Environmental exposures that affect accumulation of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in humans are complex and not fully understood. One challenge in linking environmental exposure to accumulation is determining variability of PCB concentrations in samples collected from the same person at different times. We hypothesized that PCBs in human blood serum are consistent from year to year in people who live in the same environment between sampling. We analyzed blood serum from children and their mothers from urban and rural U.S. communities (n = 200) for all 209 PCBs (median ∑PCBs = 45 ng/g lw) and 12 hydroxylated PCBs (median ∑OH-PCBs = 0.09 ng/g fw). A subset of these participants (n = 155) also had blood PCB and OH-PCB concentrations analyzed during the previous calendar year. Although many participants had similar levels of PCBs and OH-PCBs in their blood from one year to the next, some participants had surprisingly different levels. Year-to-year variability in ∑PCBs ranged from −87% to 567% and in ∑OH-PCBs ranged from −51 to 358% (5th–95th percentile). This is the first study to report variability of all PCBs and major metabolites in two generations of people and suggests short-term exposures to PCBs may be a significant component of what is measured in human serum.
ISSN:0013-936X
1520-5851
DOI:10.1021/es502490w