| Literature DB >> 24333995 |
Catherine Pirard1, Gudrun Koppen2, Koen De Cremer3, Ilse Van Overmeire4, Eva Govarts5, Marie-Christine Dewolf6, Els Van De Mieroop7, Dominique Aerts8, Pierre Biot9, Ludwine Casteleyn10, Marike Kolossa-Gehring11, Gerda Schwedler12, Jürgen Angerer13, Holger M Koch14, Birgit K Schindler15, Argelia Castaño16, Marta Esteban17, Greet Schoeters18, Elly Den Hond19, Ovnair Sepai20, Karen Exley21, Milena Horvat22, Louis Bloemen23, Lisbeth E Knudsen24, Reinhard Joas25, Anke Joas26, Joris Van Loco27, Corinne Charlier28.
Abstract
A harmonized human biomonitoring pilot study was set up within the frame of the European projects DEMOCOPHES and COPHES. In 17 European countries, biomarkers of some environmental pollutants, including urinary cadmium and hair mercury, were measured in children and their mothers in order to obtain European-wide comparison values on these chemicals. The Belgian participant population consisted in 129 school children (6-11 years) and their mothers (≤ 45 years) living in urban or rural areas of Belgium. The geometric mean levels for mercury in hair were 0.383 μg/g and 0.204 μg/g for respectively mothers and children. Cadmium in mother's and children's urine was detected at a geometric mean concentration of respectively 0.21 and 0.04 μg/l. For both biomarkers, levels measured in the mothers and their child were correlated. While the urinary cadmium levels increased with age, no trend was found for hair mercury content, except the fact that mothers hold higher levels than children. The hair mercury content increased significantly with the number of dental amalgam fillings, explaining partially the higher levels in the mothers by their higher presence rate of these amalgams compared to children. Fish or seafood consumption was the other main parameter determining the mercury levels in hair. No relationship was found between smoking status and cadmium or mercury levels, but the studied population included very few smokers. Urinary cadmium levels were higher in both mothers and children living in urban areas, while for mercury this difference was only significant for children. Our small population showed urinary cadmium and hair mercury levels lower than the health based guidelines suggested by the WHO or the JECFA (Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives). Only 1% had cadmium level slightly higher than the German HBM-I value (1 μg/l for adults), and 9% exceeded the 1 μg mercury/g hair suggested by the US EPA.Entities:
Keywords: Cadmium; Europe; Hair; Human biomonitoring; Mercury; Urine
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Year: 2013 PMID： 24333995 DOI： 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2013.11.028
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Sci Total Environ ISSN： 0048-9697 Impact factor: 7.963