Evaluating age and temporal trends of chlorinated paraffins in pooled serum collected from males in Australia between 2004 and 2015

Louise M van Mourik; Leisa-Maree L Toms; Chang He; Andrew Banks; Peter Hobson; Pim E G Leonards; Jacob de Boer; Jochen F Mueller

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2019.125574

Evaluating age and temporal trends of chlorinated paraffins in pooled serum collected from males in Australia between 2004 and 2015

Chemosphere. 2020 Apr:244:125574. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2019.125574. Epub 2019 Dec 7.

Authors

Louise M van Mourik¹, Leisa-Maree L Toms², Chang He³, Andrew Banks³, Peter Hobson⁴, Pim E G Leonards⁵, Jacob de Boer⁵, Jochen F Mueller³

Affiliations

¹ The University of Queensland, Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Science (QAEHS), 20 Cornwall Street, Woolloongabba, 4102, Queensland, Australia; Vrije Universiteit, Department of Environment and Health, Faculty of Sciences, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Electronic address: louise.van.mourik@vu.nl.
² The University of Queensland, Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Science (QAEHS), 20 Cornwall Street, Woolloongabba, 4102, Queensland, Australia; School of Public Health and Social Work and Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, 4059, Australia.
³ The University of Queensland, Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Science (QAEHS), 20 Cornwall Street, Woolloongabba, 4102, Queensland, Australia.
⁴ Sullivan and Nicolaides Pathology, 24 Hurworth Street, Bowen Hills 4006, Queensland, Australia.
⁵ Vrije Universiteit, Department of Environment and Health, Faculty of Sciences, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

PMID: 32050349
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2019.125574

Abstract

Chlorinated paraffins (CPs) are high production volume chemicals of which some show resistance to environmental degradation, long-rang transport, bioaccumulation and toxicity potential. Information regarding their presence in humans is limited, including their human bioaccumulation potential. The present study aimed to evaluate CP levels in human serum from Australia in order to better understand their exposure and current pollution status as well as trends associated with age and time between 2004 and 2015. For this, we selected a male sub-group of the Australian population under 60 years old (n = 16 pools, total 1600 serum samples). While long-chain CP (C_18-20) and most short-chain CP (C_10-13, SCCPs) levels were below method detection limits (MDL), medium-chain CPs (C_14-17, MCCPs) were found in most serum samples (detection frequency 94%) as well as CPs with a carbon chain length of nine (detection frequency 76%). The levels of ΣSCCPs and ΣMCCPs ranged from <MDL-140 and <MDL-520 ng/g lipid weight (lw), respectively, with a median value of 97 ng/g lw for SCCPs and 190 ng/g lw for MCCPs. Analysis by age stratification did not identify any trends but an increase of a factor of 2 in MCCPs levels was observed over time (p < 0.05). Plotting the MCCP/SCCP ratio of all available data in humans over time showed also an increasing trend, including for China. The reported levels are relatively low considering the levels reported in environmental media from Australia such which raises the question to what extent CPs accumulate in humans. Future studies on this aspect are required.

Keywords: Age; Chlorinated paraffin; Human; Serum; Trends.

MeSH terms

Australia
Environmental Exposure / statistics & numerical data*
Environmental Monitoring / methods
Environmental Pollutants / metabolism*
Environmental Pollution / analysis
Humans
Hydrocarbons, Chlorinated / analysis
Hydrocarbons, Chlorinated / blood*
Middle Aged
Paraffin / analysis
Paraffin / metabolism*

Substances

Environmental Pollutants
Hydrocarbons, Chlorinated
Paraffin