Biomonitoring II EnviroChem Connections

1
Biomonitoring IIEnviroChem Connections

• Mini-Talk 1 on CDCs 3rd Report
• Suzanne Snedeker
• Cornell University
• Sprecher Institute for
• Comparative Cancer Research

2
Biomonitoring

• What is biomonitoring?
• The direct measurement of chemicals or
  metabolites in humans
• Reflects internal dose - what the body has
  actually taken up
• Reflects all sources of exposure

3
Biomonitoring

• Source of Samples
• Blood (whole or serum)
• Urine (for chemicals rapidly excreted)
• Adipose tissue (fat)
• Breast milk
• Toenails or hair
• Exhaled breath

4
CDC 3rd Report - NHANES

• National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
  (NHANES)
• Done every 2 years by the CDC
• Surveys 5,000 people in the U.S.
• Home interview
• Physical examination in mobile unit
• Obtain blood sample (over 1 year)
• Obtain urine sample (over 6 years)
• Analysis done on a random sample

5
CDC 3rd Report -Scope of study design

• 148 chemicals or their metabolites
• Three age ranges
• 6-11 years, 12-19 years, 20-59 years
• 1-5 years for some chemicals lead
• Three ethnic / racial groups
• Mexican Americans
• Non-Hispanic Blacks
• Non-Hispanic Whites

6
Types of chemicals

• Metals
• Organochlorine insecticides
• Organophosphate insecticides
• Pyrethroid Pesticides
• Herbicides
• Tobacco smoke (cotinine)

7
Types of Chemicals

• Phthalates
• Phytoestrogens
• PAHs (polyaromatic hydrocarbons)
• PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls)
• PCDDs (polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins)
• PCDFs (polychlorinated dibenzofurans)

8
Environmental Public Health Tracking - What it
can provide

• Direct assay of chemical body burden from all
  sources of exposure
• Tracks trends in exposures over time
• Identifies at-risk populations
• Establishes reference ranges for chemicals for
  which we have little/no data
• Helps evaluate if prevention efforts work
• Provides direction for further research and
  monitoring efforts

9
Major findings - New data

• First-time exposure data for 38
  chemicals - reference ranges
• Aldrin, endrin, and dieldrin
• Some PAHs (benzoapyrene)
• Additional phthalate metabolites
• Additional dioxins, furans and PCBs
• Additional insecticides and herbicides
• Photowww.cdc.gov/nceh/dls/national_biomonitori
  ng_program.htm

10
Major findings - Blood Lead

• Blood lead levels continue to decline
• There is no safe level of blood lead
• Percentage of children 1-5 years old with
  blood lead levels at or above 10 ug/dl
• 1976-1980 88.2
• 1988-1991 8.6
• 1991-1994 4.4
• 1999-2002 1.6

Photos www.cdc.gov/nceh/dls/lead.htm
11
Major findings -Urinary Cadmium (Cd)

• 5 of US population has levels above
• 1 ?g Cd/g creatinine (? kidney effects ?)
• Significance of Cd findings for breast cancer
  risk is not known, but provides much needed
  exposure data.
• Cd can support the growth of breast tumor cell
  lines may affect mammary development (lab animal
  studies)

12
Major findings - Phthalates

• Phthalate metabolites
• New, more sensitive biomarkers
• Data on exposure at different ages
• For most phthalate metabolites, levels in the
  urine of children 6-11 years of age were higher
  than levels in adults (sometimes twice as high)
• Levels in US population at or higher than levels
  reported in Germany

13
Major findings -Organochlorine pesticides

• p,p-DDE
• Levels in Mexican Americans
• Two-fold high than non-Hispanic blacks
• Three-fold higher in non-Hispanic whites
• Other organochlorines
• Many were below the limits of detection
• Including DDT, aldrin, endrin, dieldrin,
  heptachlor epoxide, mirex)

14
Major findings - Smoking

• Environmental tobacco smoke
• Dramatic decrease in exposure to environmental
  tobacco smoke in non-smokers (median
  cotinine levels)
• Compared to 1988-91 data, saw
• 68 decrease in children
• 69 decrease in adolescents
• 75 decrease in adults
• Photo www.cdc.gov/nceh/dls/tobacco_smoking.htm

15
New chemicals to be monitored in future reports

• Metals (arsenic and methyl mercury)
• Volatile Organic Chemicals (VOCs)
• Polybrominated compounds
• Phenols (bisphenol A, nonylphenol and octylphenol
  estrogen mimics)
• Perfluorinated compounds
• Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)

16
New chemicals to be monitored in future
reports

• Additional pesticides in these classes
• Organochlorine pesticides
• Organophosphate pesticides
• Chloroacetanilide herbicides
• Acetochlor and metolachlor metabolites
• Pyrethrins
• Photo www.cdc.gov/biomonitoring/overview.htm

17
What the current CDC report does not provide

• Levels by region (state, county, zip code)
• Seasonal variations in levels
• Environmental levels (air, water, food, soil)
• Duration or intensity of exposures
• Use of particular products
• Whether levels are associated with a particular
  health effect

18
CDC - Spokes in the wheel Environmental Public
Health Tracking

• Biomonitoring program
• Provides state funding
• Targeted research projects
• Improve infrastructure to integrate biomonitoring
  and health indicator data
• Develops new biomarkers
• Provides sample analysis for breast cancer studies