TY - JOUR
T1 - Hair versus urine for the biomonitoring of pesticide exposure
T2 - Results from a pilot cohort study on pregnant women
AU - Hardy, Emilie M.
AU - Dereumeaux, Clémentine
AU - Guldner, Laurence
AU - Briand, Olivier
AU - Vandentorren, Stéphanie
AU - Oleko, Amivi
AU - Zaros, Cécile
AU - Appenzeller, Brice M.R.
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was carried out in the framework of the call for Research Project 2010 of the National Research Programme for Environmental and Occupational Health’ (PNR-EST) of the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (ANSES, Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire, de l’alimentation, de l’environnement et du travail), with the financial support of the National Office for Water and Aquatic Environments (ONEMA, Office National de l’Eau et des Milieux Aquatiques) supporting the implementation of the Plan Ecophyto 2018, France.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s)
PY - 2021/7
Y1 - 2021/7
N2 - Background/Aim: The quantitative assessment of human exposure to contaminants such as pesticides is a crucial step in the characterization of exposure-associated risk. For this purpose, biomonitoring is often privileged as it presents the advantage of integrating all the possible sources and routes of exposure and of being representative of the internal dose resulting from exposure. Although biological fluids such as urine and blood have been used to date for this purpose, increasing interest has also been observed over the past decade for hair analysis. The present work aimed at comparing the information obtained from the analysis of urine versus hair regarding exposure to pesticides in a pilot cohort of pregnant women. Methods: In ninety-three pregnant women included in the pilot of the French cohort ELFE, one urine and one hair sample were collected simultaneously from each subject at the maternity. Samples were analyzed using GC–MS/MS analytical methods allowing for the detection of both parent pesticides and metabolites, and designed to be as similar as possible between urine and hair for reliable inter-matrix comparison. Fifty-two biomarkers of exposure were targeted, including parents and metabolites of organochlorines, organophosphates, pyrethroids, carbamates, phenylpyrazoles and other pesticides. Results: The number of different compounds detected ranged from 16 to 27 (median = 22) in hair, and from 3 to 22 (median = 12) in urine. In hair, 24 compounds were found in > 40% of the individuals, whereas only 12 compounds presented the same frequency of detection in urine. Among the chemicals detected in > 80% of both hair and urine samples, only one (pentachlorophenol) showed a signification correlation between hair and urine concentrations. Conclusions: The present results highlight the multiple exposure of the pregnant women included in this cohort and suggest that hair provides more comprehensive information on pesticide exposure than urine analysis. This study thus supports the relevance of hair analysis in future epidemiological studies investigating association between exposure and adverse health effects.
AB - Background/Aim: The quantitative assessment of human exposure to contaminants such as pesticides is a crucial step in the characterization of exposure-associated risk. For this purpose, biomonitoring is often privileged as it presents the advantage of integrating all the possible sources and routes of exposure and of being representative of the internal dose resulting from exposure. Although biological fluids such as urine and blood have been used to date for this purpose, increasing interest has also been observed over the past decade for hair analysis. The present work aimed at comparing the information obtained from the analysis of urine versus hair regarding exposure to pesticides in a pilot cohort of pregnant women. Methods: In ninety-three pregnant women included in the pilot of the French cohort ELFE, one urine and one hair sample were collected simultaneously from each subject at the maternity. Samples were analyzed using GC–MS/MS analytical methods allowing for the detection of both parent pesticides and metabolites, and designed to be as similar as possible between urine and hair for reliable inter-matrix comparison. Fifty-two biomarkers of exposure were targeted, including parents and metabolites of organochlorines, organophosphates, pyrethroids, carbamates, phenylpyrazoles and other pesticides. Results: The number of different compounds detected ranged from 16 to 27 (median = 22) in hair, and from 3 to 22 (median = 12) in urine. In hair, 24 compounds were found in > 40% of the individuals, whereas only 12 compounds presented the same frequency of detection in urine. Among the chemicals detected in > 80% of both hair and urine samples, only one (pentachlorophenol) showed a signification correlation between hair and urine concentrations. Conclusions: The present results highlight the multiple exposure of the pregnant women included in this cohort and suggest that hair provides more comprehensive information on pesticide exposure than urine analysis. This study thus supports the relevance of hair analysis in future epidemiological studies investigating association between exposure and adverse health effects.
KW - Exposure assessment
KW - Hair
KW - Human biomonitoring
KW - Pesticides
KW - Urine
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85102114551&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33706039
U2 - 10.1016/j.envint.2021.106481
DO - 10.1016/j.envint.2021.106481
M3 - Article
C2 - 33706039
AN - SCOPUS:85102114551
SN - 0160-4120
VL - 152
SP - 106481
JO - Environment international
JF - Environment international
M1 - 106481
ER -