Prenatal exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polychlorinated dibenzo-
p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) can affect neurobehavioral development of infants and children. This effect ...may be mediated through disruption of thyroid hormone homeostasis. However, epidemiological studies reveal no consistent influence of PCDD/Fs and PCBs on thyroid status and neurodevelopment at environmental background levels. The effects may resolve with time of further decreasing exposure to these compounds. The aim of this study was to find out if there are still effects related to prenatal PCDD/F and PCB observable at the meanwhile decreased levels of exposure by using the same methods which have been applied in similar studies during the last 10 years in Europe. The birth cohort study was initiated in the year 2000 in the industrialized city of Duisburg, Germany. 232 healthy mother–infant pairs were recruited between 2000 and 2002. Dioxins, dioxin-like PCBs and six indicator PCBs were analyzed in maternal blood during pregnancy and in maternal milk following extraction and sample clean-up by HRGC/HRMS. Thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), total thyroxine (T4), total triiodothyronine (T3), free thyroxine (FT4) and free triiodothyronine (FT3) were measured in serum samples of the pregnant women and in cord serum samples by chemiluminescent immunometric assay. Neurological examinations were performed at ages 2 weeks and 18 months using the neurological optimality score (NOS), mental and motor development were assessed using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (BSID) at ages 12 and 24 months. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to describe the association of PCDD/F and PCB in maternal blood or milk with the outcome measurements after adjustment for confounding. Blood levels (
n
=
182) of WHO 2005 toxic equivalents (TEQ) (PCDD/F
+
PCB) were in the range of 3.8–58.4
pg/g
lipid base (median: 19.3
pg/g
lipid base). The corresponding data for human milk (
n
=
149) were 2.6–52.4
pg/g
lipid base (median: 19.7
pg/g
lipid base). Multiple regression analysis showed no decrease of thyroid hormones related to WHO 2005 TEQ in blood and milk of mothers and their newborns. Furthermore, no associations between exposure and neurological and developmental measures were observed. This study supports the view that the current decreased exposure to PCDD/Fs and PCBs does not impair thyroid function of newborns and neurodevelopment of infants until the age of 24 months.
Summary
Background
At the time of the German reunification in 1990, manifestations of most allergic diseases were less prevalent in East than in West Germany. It was hypothesized that these East–West ...differences would diminish with lifestyle and pollution changes in East Germany.
Objective
To investigate whether changes in the prevalence of asthma, hayfever, eczema or allergic sensitization in East Germany approached the levels seen in West Germany and to identify possible lifestyle or environmental factors that may influence this.
Methods
Between 1991 and 2000, 6‐year‐old children from four areas in East Germany participated in an annual survey. Every 3rd year, a parallel survey was performed in four areas of West Germany. In total, 31 903 children were included. Parents completed a questionnaire regarding lifestyle factors and diagnoses and symptoms of asthma, hayfever and eczema. In sub‐areas, eczema was clinically assessed by a dermatologist. Specific IgE sensitization was determined for 6121 children. Logistic regression was used to analyse differences in time trends and the influence of lifestyle and pollution changes.
Results
Lifestyle and pollution changed significantly differently between East and West Germany. The trends in hayfever and in strong (specific IgE >3.5) sensitization against pollen, and particularly birch pollen, were steeper in East than in West Germany. The trend towards marked pollen sensitization was four times stronger (95% confidence interval 1.2–13.9) in East than in West Germany. Increasing numbers of only children, less single‐room heating with fossil fuels and increasing importance of traffic‐related pollution in East Germany partly explained these differences in time trends.
Conclusions
Hayfever and sensitization against pollen were the most sensitive allergic manifestations to changes experienced specifically in East Germany. Influences of lifestyle (single‐room heating, living as a single child) were important in explaining different trend developments.
Cite this as: U. Krämer, H. Oppermann, U. Ranft, T. Schäfer, J. Ring and H. Behrendt, Clinical & Experimental Allergy, 2010 (40) 289– 298.
Lead contents in hair, whole blood and saliva were determined for 245 healthy children (121 male, 124 female, age: 8–10 years) from three residential areas of Düsseldorf (North-Rhine-Westphalia, ...Germany) with different traffic densities. The geometric mean for the lead content in hair was found to be 0.87 μg/g (range: 0.2–9.9 μg/g) for the entire test group. While the levels of lead in hair in the suburban population were significantly lower than in the two city centre populations, no significant difference concerning the lead content in hair could be detected in the latter. The geometric mean for lead concentration in whole blood amounted to 25.0 μg/l (range: 8.0–154 μg/l). There was no significant difference between the sub-groups. The lead concentrations found in saliva were rather low (range: <1.5–47.0 μg/l). Of the values, 89% were below the detection limit of 1.5 μg/l. Due to reduced levels of lead in fuel, the present study exposes that the amount of lead in the children examined has further decreased compared to preceding surveys. The correlation between the lead content in hair and the road traffic density was not corroborated by the findings with regard to amounts of lead found in blood, indicating that residual lead from fuel does not result in a substantial burden of lead found in the whole body. In contrast to levels of lead found in blood, levels of lead found in hair may be influenced more by environmental conditions. Saliva is not a suitable material for biological monitoring with respect to lead exposure in children.
Recently, it has become clear that the complexity of environmental health issues requires an approach that takes into account the complexities, interdependencies and uncertainties of the real world. ...An urgent issue that has surfaced is the need for accurate tools to better describe exposure characterization to environmental chemicals. By including human biomonitoring (HBM) data, a greater precision in exposure and associated risk estimates and more accurate dose–response relationships may be achieved. A restricting issue still is the availability of reliable and comparable HBM data. The aim of the current study was twofold: (1) to find out whether it is practically feasible to collect raw, individual HBM data across Europe; and (2) to evaluate the comparability and use of these HBM data for environmental health impact assessment at a European scale. Blood-lead (B-Pb) was selected as the chemical of choice because of its long history as an environmental pollutant in HBM programs and its known public health relevance. Through literature search and identification of HBM experts across Europe, HBM programs that measured B-Pb were identified and asked to share individual data on age, gender and B-Pb levels. Following this request, more than 20,000 individual data points from 8 European countries were collected. Analysing these data made clear that it is difficult to use disparate data collections because of the inherent variability with respect to the gender and age of participants and calendar-years sampled. When these confounders were taken however, there was no additional variability in B-Pb distributions among different countries. It was concluded that while it is possible to collect HBM data from different sources across Europe, the need to get data from comparable (sub-)populations is essential for appropriate use and interpretation of HBM data for environmental health impact assessment.
Human hantavirus (serotype Puumala) infections are prevalent throughout Europe. The bank vole is the main reservoir of the Puumala virus (PUUV). Between 2001 and 2006, the annual incidences in ...Germany ranged from 0.1 to 0.5 per 100,000 inhabitants. About half of the cases were reported from the state of Baden-Württemberg (BW) in southwest Germany. In 2007, 1,089 PUUV infections were reported from BW. This reflects an incidence of 10.1:100,000, which is more than 11 times higher than the mean incidence of the previous 6 years. Spatial analysis highlights incidences up to 90:100,000 in the most affected district. The winter season 2006/2007 showed an all time high in reported mean temperature. The previous summer and autumn led to a beech mast year, resulting in favourable feed conditions for bank voles in the winter season 2006/2007. The causes of the observed increase in PUUV infections in 2007 cannot be restricted to known cycles in the bank vole population. Favourable feed conditions, a mild winter and an early onset of spring may have influenced bank vole population size as well as human exposure to infectious rodent excretions. Further epidemiologic studies are necessary to better understand the interaction between environmental factors, occurrence of Puumala virus in bank voles and the risk for human disease.
Animal studies have suggested that fine particulate matter (PM) can translocate from the upper respiratory tract to the brain and cause brain inflammation. Brain inflammation is involved in the ...pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases. Hypothesizing therefore that long-term exposure to fine PM might contribute to the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD), the objective of this study was to investigate the association between exposure to fine PM and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) which is associated with a high risk of progression to AD. A study group of 399 women aged 68–79 years who lived for more than 20 years at the same residential address has been assessed for long-term exposure to PM and tested for MCI. The exposure assessment comprised background concentration of PM
10 and traffic-related PM indicated by the distance of the residential address to the next busy road. The women were assessed for MCI by a battery of several neuropsychological tests and their odor identification ability. Consistent effects of traffic-related air pollution exposure on test performances including a dose–response relation were found. The associations were adjusted for potential confounders using regression analysis. These results indicate that chronic exposure to traffic-related PM may be involved in the pathogenesis of AD.
Mercury levels measured in urine, hair, and saliva of 245 German children (8-10 years old) are reported. Mercury concentrations in urine ranged between <0.1 and 5.3 microg/l geometric mean (GM) 0.26 ...microg/l or 0.25 microg/g creatinine; median for both, 0.22 in microg/l and microg/g, respectively. Using multiple linear regression analysis, two predictors have been found accounting for 25.3% of the variance of mercury levels in urine: the number of teeth with amalgam fillings (23.2%) and the number of defective amalgam fillings (2.1%). The mercury content in hair ranged from <0.06 to 1.7 microg/g (GM 0.18 microg/g; median 0.18 microg/g). The frequency of fish consumption, the smoking habits of the parents, and the age of the children accounted for 20.4% of the variance of mercury levels in hair. The correlation between the hair mercury content and urine mercury concentration was low (r=0.297). Mercury levels in saliva ranged between <0.32 and 4.5 microg/l (median 0.16 microg/l). The mercury concentration in saliva was below the limit of quantification of 0.32 microg/l in more than 70% of the samples. Mercury analysis in urine is suitable to estimate mercury exposure due to amalgam fillings, whereas hair mercury better reflects mercury intake by fish consumption. Up to now, saliva does not seem to be a suitable tool to monitor the mercury burden, at least not at low exposure levels.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
► This paper assesses arsenic excretion and absorption as modelled by a USEPA-derived exposure model. ► Modelled urinary arsenic was compared to measured urinary arsenic. ► Median modelled arsenic ...was lower than median measured arsenic excretion by a factor of 3.5. ► Modelled arsenic absorption and excretion were poor predictors of measured exposure.
In 1999–2000 an epidemiological study was carried out to investigate arsenic exposure and risk of non-melanoma skin cancer in the population around a power station in Slovakia. As part of the exposure assessment for that study, markers of physiological exposure to arsenic (urinary arsenic and nail arsenic) and measures of environmental arsenic were taken. Residential history and arsenic emissions were combined in a measure used to classify the study population’s exposure. Here, we take a model designed to estimate the daily arsenic absorption and urinary arsenic excretion developed by the US EPA and compare its output to the values for measured urinary arsenic, measured environmental arsenic and modelled food arsenic used in the previous study. We found that the US EPA model underestimated arsenic exposure in this population. Potential misclassification compared to the exposure used previously was also quantified, with poor agreement between a measured biomarker of current arsenic exposure and modelled estimates of arsenic uptake and excretion.
East-West comparison studies in Europe find higher prevalences of infectious airway diseases and lower prevalences of allergies in eastern areas. Pollution from sulphur dioxide (SO2) or total ...suspended particles (TSP) are discussed as causes of this difference.
In four differently polluted areas of East Germany where pollution decreased dramatically between 1989 and 1995 cross-sectional studies in about 7-year-old children were repeated every year between 1991 and 1995. In two differently polluted areas of West Germany studies with the same design were done in 1991 and 1994. In all, 19090 children participated in the study. Thirteen different questions about airway diseases and allergies were evaluated. Logistic regression was used to adjust for confounding.
With the exception of pneumonia, all infectious airway diseases and irritations of the airways show a steeper temporal decrease in East than in West Germany or are positively associated with either SO2 or TSP in East Germany. For allergies and related symptoms no differences in time trends could be detected or no association with SO2 or TSP could be seen in East Germany.
Most airway diseases were more frequent in East than in West Germany in 1991 and were associated with SO2 or TSP. The decrease in these pollutants between 1991 and 1995 has already had a favourable effect. An effect of SO2 or TSP pollution on allergies and related symptoms could not be detected. This pollution does not protect against the development of allergies.
Lung function and exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have been associated with short-term exposure to air pollution. However, the effect of long-term exposure to ...particulate matter from industry and traffic on COPD as defined by lung function has not been evaluated so far. Our study was designed to investigate the influence of long-term exposure to air pollution on respiratory symptoms and pulmonary function in 55-year-old women. We especially focused on COPD as defined by GOLD criteria and additionally compared the effects of air pollution on respiratory symptoms by questionnaire data and by lung function measurements.
In consecutive cross sectional studies conducted between 1985-1994, we investigated 4757 women living in the Rhine-Ruhr Basin of Germany. NO2 and PM10 exposure was assessed by measurements done in an 8 km grid, and traffic exposure by distance from the residential address to the nearest major road using Geographic Information System data. Lung function was determined and COPD was defined by using the GOLD criteria. Chronic respiratory symptoms and possible confounders were defined by questionnaire data. Linear and logistic regressions, including random effects were used to account for confounding and clustering on city level.
The prevalence of COPD (GOLD stages 1-4) was 4.5%. COPD and pulmonary function were strongest affected by PM10 and traffic related exposure. A 7 microg/m3 increase in five year means of PM10 (interquartile range) was associated with a 5.1% (95% CI 2.5%-7.7%) decrease in FEV1, a 3.7% (95% CI 1.8%-5.5%) decrease in FVC and an odds ratio (OR) of 1.33 (95% CI 1.03-1.72) for COPD. Women living less than 100 m from a busy road also had a significantly decreased lung function and COPD was 1.79 times more likely (95% CI 1.06-3.02) than for those living farther away. Chronic symptoms as based on questionnaire information showed effects in the same direction, but less pronounced.
Chronic exposure to PM10, NO2 and living near a major road might increase the risk of developing COPD and can have a detrimental effect on lung function.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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