Association of triclosan and triclocarban in urine with obesity risk in Chinese school children

Abstract

Background: Laboratory studies have suggested that triclosan and triclocarban can influence energy metabolism by multiple mechanisms and are potential obesogens, but the effect on obesity risk has not been well investigated in human.

Objective: To examine the associations of triclosan and triclocarban in urine with childhood obesity.

Methods: We investigated 458 school children aged 7-11 years who entered a dynamic cohort of children established in Shanghai in 2019 and 2020. Triclosan and triclocarban were determined in first morning urine by liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. Body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) were used to identify general overweight/obesity and central obesity, respectively. Logistic regression and linear models of generalized estimating equations (GEE) were used to investigate the association between urinary triclosan and triclocarban with obesity prevalence.

Results: After adjusting for potential confounders, children with detectable triclocarban in urine had a higher proportion of general overweight/obesity (odds ratio (OR): 1.84; 95% confidential interval (95% CI): 1.19, 2.85) or central obesity (OR: 1.71; 95% CI: 1.03, 2.84). Compared to the low tertile, children in the median tertile of triclosan showed a higher proportion of central obesity (OR: 1.78; 95 %CI: 0.98, 3.24) and children in the high tertile of triclocarban had a higher proportion of general overweight/obesity (OR: 2.25; 95 %CI: 1.31, 3.88) and central obesity (OR: 2.08; 95 %CI: 1.12, 3.87). When the tertiles of triclocarban in urine were treated as a continuous variable, a positive exposure-response relationship was found with general overweight/obesity (OR: 1.50; 95 %CI: 1.15, 1.96) and central obesity (OR: 1.44; 95 %CI: 1.06, 1.95). Multiple linear regression showed a positive exposure-response relationship between triclocarban and BMI (β: 0.45; 95 %CI: 0.11, 0.80) values.

Conclusion: Exposure to triclosan and triclocarban was associated with increased risk of childhood obesity. Given the cross-sectional design, more studies are needed to interrogate these findings.

Keywords: Children; China; Obesity; Triclocarban; Triclosan; Urine.