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Potentially harmful elements in house dust from Estarreja, Portugal: characterization and genotoxicity of the bioaccessible fraction

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Abstract

Due to their behavioral characteristics, young children are vulnerable to the ingestion of indoor dust, often contaminated with chemicals that are potentially harmful. Exposure to potentially harmful elements (PHEs) is currently exacerbated by their widespread use in several industrial, agricultural, domestic and technological applications. PHEs cause adverse health effects on immune and nervous systems and can lead to cancer development via genotoxic mechanisms. The present study is an integrated approach that aims at assessing the genotoxicity of bioaccessible PHEs following ingestion of contaminated house dust. A multidisciplinary methodology associating chemical characterization of five house dust samples, extraction of the bioaccessible PHEs in gastric extracts by the unified BARGE method, determination of the bioaccessible fraction and in vitro genotoxicity of gastric extracts in adenocarcinoma gastric human (AGS) cells was developed. The five gastric extracts induced dose-dependent genotoxicity in AGS cells. Copper (bioaccessible concentration up to 111 mg/kg) was probably the prevalent PHE inducing primary DNA damage (up to 5.1-fold increase in tail DNA at 0.53 g/l of gastric extract). Lead (bioaccessible concentration up to 245 mg/kg) was the most prevalent PHE inducing chromosome-damaging effects (r = 0.55; p < 0.001 for micronucleated cells induction). The association of principal component analysis and Spearman’s correlations was decisive to understand the chromosome-damaging properties of the bioaccessible PHEs in AGS cells. This methodology could be used on a larger-scale study to provide useful information for science-based decision-making in regulatory policies, and a better estimation of human exposure and associated health risks.

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Acknowledgments

Funding for this research was provided by the Labex DRIIHM, Réseau des Observatoires Hommes—Millieux—Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (ROHM–CNRS) and ECosystèmes COntinentaux et Risques EnVironnementaux (ECCOREV). This work has also been carried out thanks to the support of the A*MIDEX project “CREER” (n° ANR-11-IDEX-0001-02) funded by the “Investissements d’Avenir” French Government program, managed by the French National Research Agency (ANR). The authors want to express their gratitude to Jocelyne Pompili for her technical help, Kankoé Sallah for his statistical analysis performed, as well as Chiara Uboldi for her precious help to write this article.

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  1. Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d’Ecologie marine et continentale (IMBE), Aix Marseille Université, CNRS, IRD, Avignon Université, Faculté de Médecine Timone, 27 Bd Jean Moulin, 13005, Marseille, France

    Sophie Plumejeaud, Virginie Tassistro & Thierry Orsière

  2. GEOBIOTEC, Departmento de Geociências, Universidade de Aveiro, Campus Universitario de Santiago, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal

    Amelia Paula Reis & Carla Patinha

  3. Aix Marseille Université, CNRS, CEREGE UM34, 13545, Aix-en-Provence, France

    Yves Noack

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10653_2016_9888_MOESM1_ESM.tif

Box and whisker plots of the bioaccessible fraction (BAF) estimated for 16 PHEs using the UBM protocol in the 19 houses sampled by Reis et al. (2015) (TIFF 59 kb)

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Plumejeaud, S., Reis, A.P., Tassistro, V. et al. Potentially harmful elements in house dust from Estarreja, Portugal: characterization and genotoxicity of the bioaccessible fraction. Environ Geochem Health 40, 127–144 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-016-9888-z

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