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Pilot study testing a European human biomonitoring framework for biomarkers of chemical exposure in children and their mothers: experiences in the UK

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Abstract

Exposure to a number of environmental chemicals in UK mothers and children has been assessed as part of the European biomonitoring pilot study, Demonstration of a Study to Coordinate and Perform Human Biomonitoring on a European Scale (DEMOCOPHES). For the European-funded project, 17 countries tested the biomonitoring guidelines and protocols developed by COPHES. The results from the pilot study in the UK are presented; 21 school children aged 6–11 years old and their mothers provided hair samples to measure mercury and urine samples, to measure cadmium, cotinine and several phthalate metabolites: mono(2-ethyl-5-hydroxyhexyl)phthalate (5OH-MEHP), mono(2-ethyl-5-oxo-hexyl)phthalate (5oxo-MEHP) and mono(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (MEHP), mono-ethyl phthalate (MEP), mono-iso-butyl phthalate (MiBP), mono-benzyl phthalate (MBzP) and mono-n-butyl phthalate (MnBP). Questionnaire data was collected on environment, health and lifestyle. Mercury in hair was higher in children who reported frequent consumption of fish (geometric mean 0.35 μg/g) compared to those that ate fish less frequently (0.13 μg/g, p = 0.002). Cadmium accumulates with age as demonstrated by higher levels of urinary cadmium in the mothers (geometric mean 0.24 μg/L) than in the children(0.14 μg/L). None of the mothers reported being regular smokers, and this was evident with extremely low levels of cotinine measured (maximum value 3.6 μg/L in mothers, 2.4 μg/L in children). Very low levels of the phthalate metabolites were also measured in both mothers and children (geometric means in mothers: 5OH-MEHP 8.6 μg/L, 5oxo-MEHP 5.1 μg/L, MEHP 1.2 μg/L, MEP 26.8 μg/L, MiBP 17.0 μg/L, MBzP 1.6 μg/L and MnBP 13.5 μg/L; and in children: 5OH-MEHP 18.4 μg/L, 5oxo-MEHP 11.4 μg/L, MEHP 1.4 μg/L, MEP 14.3 μg/L, MiBP 25.8 μg/L, MBzP 3.5 μg/L and MnBP 22.6 μg/L). All measured biomarker levels were similar to or below population-based reference values published by the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and Germany’s GerES surveys. No results were above available health guidance values and were of no concern with regards to health. The framework and techniques learnt here will assist with future work on biomonitoring in the UK.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the schools and the mothers and children who agreed to participate in the study. Thank you to the members of staff at Public Health England, including Julie Scott who assisted with the sampling and Gill Fisher for administration assistance, the Health and Safety Laboratory for coordinating the sample analysis, the laboratories that analysed the samples, the coordinators and project partners of COPHES and DEMOCOPHES, the work package leaders of COPHES and their teams. Updated information on the projects can be found on the project website www.eu-hbm.info.

Funding

The UK DEMOCOPHES pilot study was co-funded by the European Commission DG Environment under the LIFE+ Programme (LIFE09/ENV/BE000410) and Public Health England (formerly the Health Protection Agency). DEMOCOPHES is coordinated by the Federal Public Service Health Food Chain Safety and Environment, Belgium. COPHES is coordinated by BiPRO GmbH, Germany, with the University of Leuven, Belgium, and is funded by the European Commission DG Research in the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013 – No.244237).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards, Public Health England, Chilton, Oxfordshire, OX11 0RQ, UK

    Karen Exley & Ovnair Sepai

  2. Federal Public Service Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment, Brussels, Belgium

    Dominique Aerts & Pierre Biot

  3. University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Ludwine Casteleyn

  4. Federal Environment Agency (UBA), Berlin, Germany

    Marike Kolossa-Gehring & Gerda Schwedler

  5. Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), Madrid, Spain

    Argelia Castaño & Marta Esteban

  6. Institute for Prevention and Occupational Medicine of the German Social Accident Insurance, Institute of the Ruhr-Universitat Bochum (IPA), Bochum, Germany

    Jürgen Angerer, Holger M. Koch & Birgit K. Schindler

  7. Environmental Risk and Health Unit, Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), Mol, Belgium

    Greet Schoeters & Elly Den Hond

  8. Jožef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Milena Horvat

  9. Environmental Health Science International, Hulst, Netherlands

    Louis Bloemen

  10. University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Lisbeth E. Knudsen

  11. BiPRO GmbH, Munich, Germany

    Reinhard Joas & Anke Joas

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  1. Karen Exley
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  2. Dominique Aerts
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  3. Pierre Biot
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  13. Elly Den Hond
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  14. Milena Horvat
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  15. Louis Bloemen
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  16. Lisbeth E. Knudsen
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  17. Reinhard Joas
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  18. Anke Joas
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  19. Ovnair Sepai
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Correspondence to Karen Exley.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

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Exley, K., Aerts, D., Biot, P. et al. Pilot study testing a European human biomonitoring framework for biomarkers of chemical exposure in children and their mothers: experiences in the UK. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 15821–15834 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4772-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4772-4

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