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Validity of Geolocation and Distance to Exposure Sources from Geographical Information Systems for Environmental Monitoring of Toxic Metal Exposures Based on Correlation with Biological Samples: a Systematic Review

  • Metals and Health (TR Sanchez and M Tellez-Plaza, Section Editors)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

In epidemiologic studies, biomarkers are the best possible choice to assess individual exposure to toxic metals since they integrate all exposure sources. However, measuring biomarkers is not always feasible, given potential budgetary and time constraints or limited availability of samples. Alternatively, approximations to individual metal exposure obtained from geographic information systems (GIS) have become popular to evaluate diverse metal-related health outcomes.

Our objective was to conduct a systematic review of epidemiological studies that evaluated the validity of GIS-based geolocation and distance to pollutant sources as an approximation of individual metal exposure based on correlation with biological samples.

Recent Findings

We considered 11 toxic metals: lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), antimony (Sb), aluminum (Al), arsenic (As), chromium (Cr), nickel (Ni), mercury (Hg), tungsten (W), uranium (U), and vanadium (V). The final review included 12 manuscripts which included seven metals (Pb, Cd, Al, As, Cr, Hg, and Ni). Many studies used geolocation of the individuals to compare exposed (industrial, urban, agricultural, or landfill sources) and unexposed areas and not so many studies used distance to a source. For all metals, except lead, there was more animal than human biosampling to conduct biological validation.

Summary

We observed a trend towards higher levels of Cd, Cr, Hg, and Pb in biosamples collected closer to exposure sources, supporting that GIS-based proxies for these metals might approximate individual exposure. However, given the low number and heterogeneity of the retrieved studies, the accumulated evidence is, overall, not sufficient. Given the practical benefits and potential of modern GIS technologies, which allow environmental monitoring at a reasonable cost, additional validation studies that include human biosampling are needed to support the use of GIS-based individual exposure measures in epidemiologic studies.

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Author notes

  1. Amaya Bernal-Alonso, Maria Alonso-Colon, and Daniel Cifo contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National School of Health Studies, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain

    Amaya Bernal-Alonso, Maria Alonso-Colon & Daniel Cifo

  2. Department of Chronic Diseases Epidemiology, National Center for Epidemiology, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain

    Rebeca Ramis

  3. Centre for Biomedical Research in Epidemiology & Public Health (CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública - CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain

    Rebeca Ramis

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  1. Amaya Bernal-Alonso
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Contributions

All authors conceptualized the review. A.B.A., M.A.C., D.C., and R.R. developed the search strategy. A.B.A., M.A.C., and D.C. reviewed all the retrieved abstracts. R.R. acted as fourth reviewer in case of inconsistent article selection. A.B.A., M.A.C., and D.C. drafted the data extraction tables. R.R. assisted in editing data extraction tables. All the authors interpreted the data extraction tables. A.B.A., M.A.C., and D.C. wrote the initial draft of the manuscript. R.R. reviewed, edited, and approved the ultimate draft of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Rebeca Ramis.

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Bernal-Alonso, A., Alonso-Colon, M., Cifo, D. et al. Validity of Geolocation and Distance to Exposure Sources from Geographical Information Systems for Environmental Monitoring of Toxic Metal Exposures Based on Correlation with Biological Samples: a Systematic Review. Curr Envir Health Rpt 9, 735–757 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40572-022-00383-3

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