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Urinary and breast milk biomarkers to assess exposure to naphthalene in pregnant women: an investigation of personal and indoor air sources
Citation
Wheeler, AJ and Dobbin, NA and Heroux, M-E and Fisher, M and Sun, L and Khoury, CF and Hauser, R and Walker, M and Ramsay, T and Bienvenu, JF and LeBlanc, A and Daigle, E and Gaudreau, E and Belanger, P and Feeley, M and Ayotte, P and Arbuckle, TE, Urinary and breast milk biomarkers to assess exposure to naphthalene in pregnant women: an investigation of personal and indoor air sources, Environmental Health, 13 Article 30. ISSN 1476-069X (2014) [Refereed Article]
Copyright Statement
2014 Wheeler et al. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
DOI: doi:10.1186/1476-069X-13-30
Abstract
METHODS: Pregnant women residing in Ottawa, Ontario completed personal and indoor air sampling, and questionnaires. During pregnancy, pooled urine voids were collected over two 24-hour periods on a weekday and a weekend day. At 2-3 months post-birth, they provided a spot urine sample and a breast milk sample following the 24-hour air monitoring. Urines were analyzed for 1-naphthol and 2-naphthol and breast milk for naphthalene. Simple linear regression models examined associations between known naphthalene sources, air and biomarker samples.
RESULTS: Study recruitment rate was 11.2% resulting in 80 eligible women being included. Weekday and weekend samples were highly correlated for both personal (r = 0.83, p < 0.0001) and indoor air naphthalene (r = 0.91, p < 0.0001). Urine specific gravity (SG)-adjusted 2-naphthol concentrations collected on weekdays and weekends (r = 0.78, p < 0.001), and between pregnancy and postpartum samples (r = 0.54, p < 0.001) were correlated.Indoor and personal air naphthalene concentrations were significantly higher post-birth than during pregnancy (p < 0.0001 for signed rank tests); concurrent urine samples were not significantly different. Naphthalene in breast milk was associated with urinary 1-naphthol: a 10% increase in 1-naphthol was associated with a 1.6% increase in breast milk naphthalene (95% CI: 0.2%-3.1%). No significant associations were observed between naphthalene sources reported in self-administered questionnaires and the air or biomarker concentrations.
CONCLUSIONS: Median urinary concentrations of naphthalene metabolites tended to be similar to (1-naphthol) or lower (2-naphthol) than those reported in a Canadian survey of women of reproductive age. Only urinary 1-naphthol and naphthalene in breast milk were associated. Potential reasons for the lack of other associations include a lack of sources, varying biotransformation rates and behavioural differences over time.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
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Keywords: | Naphthalene, Personal exposure, Biomarkers, Indoor air quality |
Research Division: | Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services |
Research Group: | Human resources and industrial relations |
Research Field: | Occupational and workplace health and safety |
Objective Division: | Health |
Objective Group: | Public health (excl. specific population health) |
Objective Field: | Public health (excl. specific population health) not elsewhere classified |
UTAS Author: | Wheeler, AJ (Dr Amanda Wheeler) |
ID Code: | 101139 |
Year Published: | 2014 |
Web of Science® Times Cited: | 10 |
Deposited By: | Menzies Institute for Medical Research |
Deposited On: | 2015-06-10 |
Last Modified: | 2017-12-12 |
Downloads: | 360 View Download Statistics |
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