Urinary 1-hydroxypyrene and PAH exposure in 4-year-old Spanish children
Introduction
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are released into the environment as a complex mixture of compounds during incomplete combustion of organic matter (IARC, 2003). PAH are found in multiple environmental media, including indoor and ambient air, soil, water and food. The main sources of human exposure to PAH are occupation, passive and active smoking, food and water and air pollution (Jongeneelen, 1997). Pollution of air by PAH is mainly due to fuel-combustion emissions from motor vehicle (e.g., diesel and gasoline vehicles), heating and power sources (e.g., including coal, oil and biomass) and indoor sources, such as cooking, residential heating and tobacco smoke (IARC, 1989, IARC, 2004; Straif et al., 2006; Lewtas, 2007). Thus, exposure of the general population to PAH from inhalation of ambient air varies according to the degree of urbanisation and industrialisation and the level of traffic, and it is influenced by the home environment and life style factors (Hansen et al., 2005, Hansen et al., 2008).
PAH are human health hazards and a number of them are known carcinogenic compounds (IARC, 1983). It is well known that children are at particular risk for health effects of air pollutants since their respiratory and immune systems are not fully developed, they inhale relatively more air per kilogram of body weight than adults and they generally spend more time outdoors (Schwartz, 2004). Exposure to PAH from air pollution has been associated with increased risk of adverse health effects in children, such as asthma and cancer, though the extent to which this excess risk can be attributed to exposure to PAH remains unclear (Crosignani et al., 2004, Kim et al., 2005, Knox, 2005).
Pyrene is one of the most produced PAH in emissions from the combustion of petrol and diesel, the main source of PAH in urban environments (Castaño-Vinyals et al., 2004). Urinary 1-OHP, a major metabolite of pyrene, is considered an appropriate surrogate biomarker for total PAH-exposure of human populations (Levin, 1995, Jongeneelen, 1997, Siwinska et al., 1998) and is reported to reflect levels of PAH exposure from different sources such as ambient air, food and indoor air (Gilbert and Viau, 1997, Vyskocil et al., 1997, Vyskocil et al., 2000). It has been suggested that urinary 1-OHP reflects exposure to PAH even at low air pollution levels (Castaño-Vinyals et al., 2004), and it is increasingly being used to biomonitor human exposure to air pollution (Hansen et al., 2008). In addition, the human biomonitoring of environmental exposures to PAH is considered a priority in the European Environmental and Health Program (Casteleyn et al., 2007).
Although more information is becoming available on urinary 1-OHP concentrations among the general population, levels in children are less well known. Epidemiological studies on childhood exposure to PAH over the past decade have shown a wide range of 1-OHP levels (Siwinska et al., 1998, Siwinska et al., 1999, Vyskocil et al., 2000, Fiala et al., 2001, Grainger et al., 2005), which were associated with local sources of outdoor exposure, diet, smokers at home and cooking with wood/coal (van Wijnen et al., 1996, Siwinska et al., 1999, Fiala et al., 2001, Mucha et al., 2006, Kollosa-Gehring et al., 2007). In urban areas with heavy traffic, motor vehicle emissions have been suggested as an important source of childhood exposure to PAH that, consequently, significantly affects 1-OHP excretion (Mielzynska et al., 2006, Ruchirawat et al., 2007, Tuntawiroon et al., 2007). Thus, in a study of 3–13 year-old Dutch children, 1-OHP concentrations in those living in urban residences were significantly higher than those in children living in rural areas (Hansen et al., 2005). Therefore, it is crucial to take into consideration the area of residence when studying 1-OHP levels in children.
The present study was carried out as part of the “Environment and Childhood Research Network” (INMA network), a population-based cohort study in different regions of Spain that focuses on prenatal environmental exposures in relation to growth, development and health from early foetal life until childhood (Ribas-Fitó et al., 2006). The cohort established in Granada province (Southern Spain) consists of 700 boys born at the San Cecilio University Hospital between October 2000 and June 2002 (Lopez-Espinosa et al., 2007). One of the objectives of the INMA study was to assess prenatal and postnatal exposure to air pollution via environmental measurements, questionnaires, geographical information systems (GIS) and the monitoring of urinary 1-OHP during pregnancy and infancy (Esplugues et al., 2007). With this background, the objectives of the present study were to determinate urinary 1-OHP concentrations in children living in Granada province and to evaluate their association with exposure to air pollution and other factors related to PAH in air.
Section snippets
Study area
The study was conducted in an area that covers the health district of the San Cecilio University Hospital, with a total population of 512,000 inhabitants and an extension of approximately 4000 km2. This area includes part of the city of Granada (236,000 inhabitants) and 50 towns and villages. Two areas were differentiated: a) an urban area, corresponding to the central districts of the city of Granada and the metropolitan area around the city, with high population and high traffic densities
Results
Mean age (± standard deviation [SD]) of the children participating in this study was 4.3 years (± 0.2). Concentration of 1-OHP was above the LOQ in 78.8% of urine samples. Mean (± SD) of unadjusted and adjusted 1-OHP concentrations were 0.070 ng/ml urine (± 0.070 ng/ml) and 0.061 µmol/mol creatinine (± 0.051 µmol/mol), respectively. Concentration of 1-OHP ranged from 0.004 to 0.314 µmol/mol (0.015–0.553 ng/ml). In urban and rural areas, 43 and 54% of the children, respectively, were exposed to ETS,
Discussion
This study detected an association between urinary excretion of 1-OHP and traffic-related air pollution estimated by outdoor NO2 measurements, suggesting that motor vehicle emissions play an important role in the exposure to PAH of children in Granada. Accordingly, parents' perception of traffic density was also associated with 1-OHP levels but did not influence 1-OHP when considered together with exposure to NO2, suggesting that NO2 is better marker of traffic-related air pollution than is
Acknowledgement
We thank Richard Davies for editorial assistance. This research was supported by grants from the Consejería de Salud de la Junta de Andalucía (SAS-0183/2007), Spanish Ministry of Health (FIS-07/0252) and the EU Commission (CONTAMED FP7-ENV-212502).
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